A Night In The Vault
by Felyndiira
Summary: Amanda has an accident while filing in the vault that leads to multiple revelations about Scarecrow and Mrs. King's relationship
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own "Scarecrow and Mrs. King", but have been a long-time fan. I named my daughter Amanda after Mrs. King, whose spunk and determination were so admirable. I have had this story bouncing around in my head for awhile now, and hope you enjoy it.

Author's Notes: Takes place after "The Khrushchev List", and marriage is still a secret

_Friday, August 21, 1987, 8:00 AM_

Amanda unlocked the door to the Q Bureau, shut it behind her, and moved towards the small refrigerator to put away her lunch for the day. As big as the filing project Billy had assigned her on Monday sounded, she was pretty certain she wouldn't have time to go out for lunch if she wanted to get done by the end of the day. She sat down behind her desk to wait for the movers who were delivering the files to the Q Bureau that morning, and thought back to last Monday's weekly staff meeting.

_Monday, August 17, 1987, 9:37 AM_

Billy Melrose sat at the head of the table in the conference room, and looked down at his checklist of items for discussion and review this week. Things had been pretty slow around the office lately, which was usually a blessing and a curse. It seemed like something bad always seemed to happen to someone in his department whenever it got too quiet. Only two things left to cover and they'd be done for the week. "Amanda, one of our field offices is being shut down. All of their files will be transferred here for storage temporarily. I'd like you to create a record of what all they send us, and then store everything in the cold storage area of the Q Bureau vault. I can't imagine we'll need to access any of it, but I want to keep it handy for awhile until they finish shutting the office down. With a good record of what they have sent, we'll have an easy time of it transferring it to long-term storage when we're ready." Amanda nodded and responded with enthusiasm, "Yes sir!" Lee Stetson, who was sitting next to her, shook his head in amusement - only his wife, Amanda, could sound excited about filing. Billy continued, "The movers will bring all the boxes up to the Q Bureau first thing Friday morning." Amanda nodded, then turned to Lee and mouthed, "Cold Storage?" with a quizzical look on her face. Lee mouthed back, "Explain later," as Billy continued.

"Last item on the Agenda is for you, Scarecrow. We have an Omega One situation, and you've been requested to handle it. I will brief you on the details in my office after the meeting. You'll be out of town for about a week, and it'll be Zero Contact during that time." Billy glanced up and saw the matching looks of dismay on the faces of his best Agents. Billy continued, "After I brief you, you'll be escorted back to your place to pack a bag and then delivered to the airport to ensure no contact is made with you." The looks got more miserable. He sighed to himself. Scarecrow and Mrs. King hadn't been fooling anyone in the office about their relationship for months now, and times like these almost made him feel sorry for the couple. "That's it, people. Let's be careful out there. Scarecrow, you're with me." Everyone stood up and began to leave the room. Amanda picked up the papers in front of her and began to turn, and dropped the entire pile on the floor. Anyone who was looking could tell it was deliberate - that would be Lee and Billy. Billy turned his head away from the couple to smile as Amanda said, "Oh my gosh!" and dropped to her knees under the table and started shuffling the papers around on the floor. Lee stood up and cleared his throat, "Uhm Billy, let me help Amanda clean this up and I'll be there in 5, OK?" He smiled hopefully at Billy, who nodded, "Five minutes, Scarecrow," and he closed the conference room door behind him to give the couple a little bit of privacy. If the lovebirds wouldn't be able to see each other for a week, the least he could do was give them five minutes to say goodbye.

Lee immediately dropped to his knees under the table. Amanda now ignored the papers and reached for Lee's hands, "Oh Lee, a whole week?" He nodded, "You know the drill, these Omega One situations are assigned to single agents who don't have families who will miss them. If we're going to keep our marriage a secret, I can't tell Billy not to let me do Omega One assignments, besides they asked for me." Amanda nodded, and slowly began to pick up the papers. Lee leaned forward and brushed a kiss against her lips. "I'll only be gone a week, and you've got that fun filing project to keep you busy." She shook her head, "That's not till Friday and I'll be worried sick about you the whole time you're gone, and you know it. Now, what did Mr. Melrose mean by cold storage in the vault?" Lee answered, "Do you remember when I first moved into the Q Bureau and we cleaned up the mess that had been left behind, I showed you the secret door inside the vault?" Amanda's forehead furrowed as she tried to remember, and then her face brightened. "Yes, there is a button on the brace of the shelf along one wall that opens a door to a second vault area." Lee nodded, "Right, that second vault is called Cold Storage. We put all the highest security files in there when we moved in, and there weren't that many, so there should be plenty of room no matter how much material they send over here." Amanda finished piling up the papers and put them back on top of the conference table, and they moved closer together so they could embrace under the table. Amanda whispered, "I love you. Promise me you'll be careful and come home safe and sound." Lee whispered back, "I love you too, and I promise. You be careful while I'm gone too." Amanda giggled, "Silly, how much trouble can I get into doing filing; the worst that can happen is I get a bad paper cut." They embraced tightly and kissed again before Amanda and then Lee stood up and left the room. Amanda took her papers back up to the Q Bureau, she wanted to get caught up on all of their paperwork before the filing project arrived. Lee made a beeline to Billy's office for the briefing.

_Friday, August 21, 1987, 8:15 AM_

A knock at the Q Bureau door shook Amanda from her daydream. She stood up and found a young man with a dolly holding several file boxes and a clipboard. *If this is all there is I'll be done in no time!* The young man asked, "Mrs. King?" She nodded, and he held out the clipboard. "I'll need your signature on each line as each group of boxes arrives." She glanced down at the clipboard and saw 10 lines waiting for a signature. At 3 boxes a trip that was 30 boxes. *Oh my gosh, this will be a project!* "Just start piling them over on the floor by the far desk, please." There were actually 2 young men with dollies bringing in piles of boxes. As each group came in, she noted the box numbers, found the appropriate line of the form and signed her name. When they were all done, she handed the clipboard to the first young man, and closed and locked the Q Bureau door. She didn't want to be interrupted while in middle of all this. She turned around and looked at the piles and piles of boxes. It was a very good thing she had brought her lunch, getting these organized might take most of the day! She got a notepad and began to prepare a list of box numbers and the contents of each box. She would type up her notes when she was finished sorting through things. As she began to work, she couldn't help but wonder where Lee was, if he was safe, and if he was missing her as much as she was missing him.

**_To be continued..._**


	2. Chapter 2

_Friday, August 21, 1987, 8:45 AM_

Lee Stetson reached out and shut off the alarm and rolled onto his back. This had to be the easiest Omega One assignment he'd ever had in his life, he just wished it didn't mean being away from Amanda for so long. As he got up and started to get ready for his next 12-hour shift, he thought back to his meeting with Billy on Monday.

_Monday, August 17, 10:00 AM_

Lee knocked on Billy's door and waiting for him to wave him in. As he closed the door, Billy closed the shades so no one in the bullpen would be able to see inside the office. He waved Lee towards the chair in front of his desk, where a manilla folder lay waiting. "What do you remember about Ivan Krakonov?" Lee frowned as he sat down in the chair, "Krakonov? He's a small time information dealer working for the Russians. Their version of Augie, I'd say, works the wrong side of the tracks and provides information to whoever is the highest bidder. Why?" Billy sat down behind his desk. "Good memory, Scarecrow. He defected this morning." Lee sat up straight, "Defected? OK, great, but why does one of their small-time guys defecting merit an Omega One Zero Contact order?" Billy frowned, and pushed the folder towards Lee. "Because Ivan Krakonov is actually Ivan Poletsky, one of the CIA's best agents who has been in deep undercover for the past 5 years. Defecting is his escape route if he felt his identify had been compromised. He now needs to be de-briefed under high security in a secret location before being relocated with a new identity. You were requested specifically by the CIA agent who will be conducting the de-briefing, Ben Pearson." Lee nodded, "Ben and I worked a case a few years back, normally our agencies don't play together well, but we seemed to click. Makes sense he'd want me if they felt Agency security was necessary."

Billy nodded. "You'll be splitting shifts with one of their guys during the de-briefing. They're going to push the timetable on this as much as possible to get him out of there safely." Lee nodded, "So where is he holed up so I know how to pack?" Billy smiled, "He's in a safehouse here in town. We're arranging fake travel arrangements to take your double to Kansas City to hopefully lure anyone who is watching away from the real thing. You'll make the switch down in the garage, we've already sent someone to your apartment to grab the basics which should get you by until next week." Lee nodded as he scanned the information in the file, while at the same time his mind raced to think if there was any incriminating items left out in his apartment of Amanda's. He had their wedding rings well hidden, and they had spent the weekend at her place since her mother and the kids were out of town.

Billy continued, "If they can stick to the timetable, you should be free to go home by the weekend. Because of the sensitive nature of the information Ivan has, the CIA insisted on a total silence blanket on the operation. Given 5 years of work is at stake, I guess I can't blame them." Lee nodded, "Well, if I can take this along with me, I'll pick up my escort who is probably waiting outside the door for me and head to the garage for the swap. He got up and started for the door before turning back towards Billy. "Hey Billy, keep an eye on Amanda while I'm out of touch, would you? You know how she manages to get herself in trouble without even trying." He tried to make it sound as casual a request as possible, but Billy could read Scarecrow like a book when it came to Amanda King. He nodded, "Sure thing, Scarecrow, we'll keep her buried in nice safe paperwork in the Q Bureau this week, plus that filing project Friday will be a handful for her." Lee gave a wave, and opened the door. Two men in suits and sunglasses were waiting for him. "Mr. Stetson, if you'll come this way..." and the 3 of them walked out of the bullpen and headed for the elevator.

_Friday, August 21, 1987, 9:00 AM_

Lee left the bedroom and high-fived the man he was relieving in the surveillance room. The two rooms made up the basement of the safe house. While Lee watched the internal and external monitors for the next 12 hours, Mark would be catching some sleep in the bed Lee had just left. In the back of the room was a small kitchenette and pantry. The coffee was ready and waiting for him, so he grabbed a cup and made some toast to much on while Mark filled him in on the quiet night. "The turned in about 3 AM so they'll probably get back to it shortly. I think they're really close to finishing up, and then we can go home where we belong." He yawned, the boredom of a quiet assignment making him drowsy. Lee nodded at Mark, "Yep, that's for sure. Have a good nap." He settled into the chair and re-oriented himself with the monitors. Sure enough, Ben, Ivan, and Michael were all stirring in their beds, so probably would be getting back to work on the de-briefing. It was amazing how much information someone who was playing the role of a small-time snitch could gather. It would appear that most people thought of him as invisible and spoke openly of many things they shouldn't have. It was a reminder to Lee to be more careful when he was around Augie - even though he couldn't imagine Augie being a double agent by any stretch of the imagination. If things went according to schedule, his shift might be over at 5 PM that afternoon and he could catch Amanda before she left the office for the weekend. He would have to go to the Agency to be de-briefed himself on the experience, and then the Zero Contact order would be over. He found himself watching the clock as well as the monitors as Ben and Michael started up their debriefing again.


	3. Chapter 3

_Friday, August 21, 1987, 12:45 PM_

Amanda slowly stood up from her crouching position on the floor, having finished labelling the last of the 30 boxes from the field office. She had written notes on the contents of each box by it's box ID on her notepad, and taped a piece of paper summarizing the contents on the front of each box so she would be able to organize them without relying on her notes. Now all she had to do was re-arrange the boxes by type of material and date, move them into the cold storage area, and type up her notes. But first, she had to have some lunch. Her stomach had been rumbling for the last half an hour at least, but she really wanted to finish the labelling before taking a break. She went to the fridge and got out her sandwich, apple, and poured herself a glass of milk and settled into her desk to eat. Looking at the piles of boxes around her, she had found it a most interesting morning. The boxes mostly contained surveillance reports and wire tap transcripts for a field office dedicated to monitoring Russian activities in the area. A handful of the boxes contained cassette tapes, probably the original wire tap recordings. Amanda had done her share of transcribing wire taps in the past for the Agency and they were usually given to her on similar cassettes. Some of the boxes had the cassettes stacked tightly within them, but there were 2 where they were just tossed in. She was pretty sure she could combine the contents of those two boxes into one if they were stored properly. That would be one less box for her to move. The rest of the boxes appeared to be pretty well organized and sorted already. She planned her method of attack while she ate. She would move the boxes all into the vault and sort them at the same time. Once the boxes were in the main vault, she could move each section into the cold storage area. Before she started moving things though, she should open up the cold storage area and decide what to put where. She thought back to the fun she had Monday afternoon trying to find that darn button on her own.

_Monday, August 17, 1987, 1:35 PM_

Lee had only been gone a few hours but Amanda was already worrying about him. After her lunch, she decided she should try to find the button to the cold storage area now. She locked the door so no one could come into the Q Bureau while she was busy in the vault. Leaving the vault door open let enough light in to see by. The vault mostly had file cabinets and boxes stacked in it, but there were a couple of shelves on the wall to the left of the entrance. The trigger button was located on one of them, and opened a door adjacent to the button, in the wall across from the entrance. She walked over and began running her hands along the shelves and the braces, trying to feel for the small button. She remembered vaguely when Lee had shown it to her, but that had been awhile ago. Finally, she found it on the far right brace of the top shelf. She had to stand on her tip-toes to reach it, but finally got it to depress and heard the sound of the door panel sliding to the side. Turning, she waited until it opened all the way. The door revealed a second vault area, similar in size to the one they had been using. When the door finished opening, a single light bulb in the back of the vault lit up, providing all of the light for the room. It was barely enough to see, and Amanda wondered if she'd need the flashlight to work in here. This room had lots more shelves than the main vault, several stacks of them lined the walls, with small filing cabinets filling the bottom one-third of each wall. If they were delivering her boxes that would only be here temporarily, it made the most sense to put them on the shelves rather than unpacking them into the filing cabinets. She quickly looked through the items she and Lee had put here when they took over the Q Bureau and decided she would move all of it to one set of filing cabinets on Friday. Hopefully there would be plenty of room for everything. Unless the boxes were very heavy, she shouldn't have any problem getting them in here. She'd bring the step-stool in from the other room to put things on the highest shelves. For now though, she needed to get back to those reports for Mr. Melrose, he wanted them done by the end of the day today.

_Friday, August 21, 1987, 1:15 PM_

Having finished her lunch and rested up, she opened up the vault's door and moved to the shelf. Once again she had to stretch up on her tip-toes to reach the button, but she got the second door open much faster than on Monday. Once the second door was fully open, she decided to start moving the boxes into the vault itself before rearranging the cold storage area. They were heavy enough that she could only move one at a time, and needed to take a break every few boxes to catch her breath and rest. Back and forth she went from the Q Bureau's main room into the vault. First she brought all of the boxes with surveillance reports and stacked them with the oldest on the bottom, newest on top. Then she repeated the process for the wire tap transcripts, and finally brought in 4 of the 6 boxes of cassettes. The other two were all jumbled up, and she wanted to pack them properly before going into storage. She emptied one box on her desk, and began repacking the tapes. When she had finished with the first box, she emptied the second box and repeated the process. She was right, she was going to be able to combine the contents into a single box. She made a note on her catalogue and the paper on the front of the box to reflect the new contents and added the fifth box to the vault. All of the boxes were now ready to go into cold storage. First thing she needed to do was move all of the things she and Lee had put in there into one location, and make sure she kept it separate from these boxes. She moved into the cold storage area. The single light bulb provided enough illumination to see by, but barely. There were some folders sitting loose on the shelves. She went and got the empty box and began putting the files in there. Suddenly she felt a sharp pain and realized she had cut her finger on one of the folders. Sticking her finger in her mouth, she went back out to the main office to get the emergency kit. She remembered her comment to Lee on Monday about the worst that would happen was a bad paper cut and chuckled. She got the emergency kit open and found the first aid kit she kept inside it. Finding the antiseptic and a band aid she treated her paper cut and got it bandaged. Glancing back towards the vault, she thought it possible she'd get another paper cut before she was done, and decided just to bring the emergency kit in there so it'd be handy. Closing the box back up, she set it on top of one of the filing cabinets in cold storage and went back to work. She soon had all of the existing filing contained in just two drawers of one of the filing cabinets and the one box, which she placed on the shelf directly above the cabinet. That left her all of the shelves on the other walls of the room for the boxes. She went back out into the Q Bureau to get her catalogue. She wanted to make notes of where exactly in the cold storage vault each box was stored to make it as easy as possible to locate a specific box. She glanced up at the clock and saw it was already 3:15! The day was sure going quickly. She decided to make a trip to the restroom and take a short walk before she started moving boxes again. She put the notepad and pen next to the emergency kit, and closed the door to the main vault, leaving the second door open. She should be able to get all of the boxes moved and be out of here by 5:00 even if she took a short break now. She grabbed her purse out of the drawer in her desk, opened the door to Q Bureau, double checked that she had her keys, and locked the door behind her. After the restroom, she'd go out and walk around the block for some fresh air and come finish up.

_Friday, August 21, 1987, 3:15 PM_

Lee Stetson had created a system during the past week for keeping an eye on all of the various monitors. He noticed Ben leaving the room where the de-briefing was taking place, and followed him on the monitors as he walked towards the hidden staircase to the basement. Lee felt a thrill of excitement, perhaps this would mean they're almost done! He waited until there was a knock on the door, stood up, and gave the code phrase. Ben responded correctly and Lee unlocked the door to let him in. They shook hands, and Ben said, "Well Lee, things couldn't have gone any smoother for us. We are taking a break to eat, and then will go over the release paperwork and his new identity with him and get him on his way. I'd say you guys will be done here by 5:00 if things go smoothly. I'll call your escorts and have them here at that time ready to take you back to the Agency. I really appreciate your help on this one, it was a relief to know I had a good set of eyes watching our backs." Lee smiled, "Always glad to help Agency-CIA relations, Ben." The two men shook hands and Ben headed back upstairs. Lee settled back down in his chair and started scanning the monitors again, but couldn't keep the grin off of his face. He'd be able to see Amanda tonight, even if just for a little while. He had no idea what her mother and the boys had planned this weekend, he relied on Amanda to keep him updated on these things.

He couldn't believe how much he missed her during the past 5 days. It certainly made him question keeping their marriage a secret. He knew it was safer for her mother and the boys, but it sure made it hard at work, and he so missed waking up to her in the morning, not to mention tucking her in at night. He sighed, knowing that as long as they chose to work in this crazy business, they'd have a crazy life. Neither of them was ready to give up field work, so they'd just keep juggling things as best they could, finding time to be together outside of work when they could. But someday he hoped they would be able to settle down as a normal man and wife would. Maybe they could even have a baby together. He loved Phillip and Jamie like his own, to be sure, but something about having a baby Stetson around appealled to him. He was surprised by this thought. He and Amanda hadn't talked about kids, certainly that wouldn't fit into their plans to keep their marriage a secret! But Lee couldn't help but imagine what Amanda would look like, her belly swollen with his child. He shook himself back to reality; he had a job to finish, he could daydream some more about his beautiful wife while his escort was taking him back to the Agency.


	4. Chapter 4

_Author's Note: Thank you so much for the kind reviews. I was out of town over the weekend, so here is your next installment. It's a long one, but starts to move the action forward now. Enjoy._

_Friday, August 21, 1987, 3:30 PM_

Amanda returned from her walk around the block, nibbling on the remains of the hot dog she had purchased from a vendor on the sidewalk. She had really worked up an appetite with all the busy work she'd been doing this week trying to keep herself distracted. An afternoon snack was so unlike her! She licked the mustard off of her fingers, and dropped the wrapper in the garbage. She set her purse down on her chair, locked the Q Bureau door, and started the process of moving all of the boxes out of the main Q Bureau room and into the vault. The food gave her a boost of energy, and she went back and forth for several trips, then took a break, and started moving them again.

_Friday, August 21, 1987, 4:45 PM_

Amanda finally had all of the boxes stacked inside of the main vault arranged to her satisfaction. A glance at the clock told her she was going to have to work a little later than she had hoped to get finished today, but not too late. Besides, it was a distraction while Lee was on his assignment. She called home to let her Mother know she was going to be working late editing a new documentary on traffic flow in the DC area. She shook her head, wondering where her mind comes up with these documentary subjects sometimes. At least it wasn't another mating ritual of some animal, she'd probably used that one too often already. She grabbed the stepstool and set it up inside of the cold storage area. She double checked the lock on the outer door was engaged. As she returned to the main vault, the pulled the door partway closed behind her. The floor of the vault was pretty full and didnt' leave a lot of room to maneuver. *Maybe I should have moved one category at a time instead of everything in here at once. Too late now* She was going to put the boxes of cassettes on the top shelf, then start bringing in the wire tap transcripts. That would probably take up the majority of the shelving along one wall, while the surveillance would fill up the other side. She shook her arms and stretched. She was getting quite the workout moving all of those boxes around, and was feeling a little tired out. She'd been sort of tired all week long, but it was because she was missing Lee, and worrying so much about him. *Sooner I start, sooner I'll finish* She went out and grabbed the first box of cassette tapes. She set the box down on the file cabinet, climbed the step stool, then bent down to pick up the box and put it on the top shelf. "This would be so much easier if Lee were here, I could be handing him the boxes and he could stand on the step stool. Oh well," and she carefully climbed down and got the next box.

As she put up the last of the boxes of cassettes, she was reminded of the boxes of cassettes she and Lee had found when they cleaned up the Q Bureau. They had to be in the main Vault, and they really didn't need to take up space in there. She could move those in here while she was at it, if she could remember where they were. She picked up the step stool and looked around the main vault, trying to remember where they were. Someplace out of the way, she thought. Glancing up, she saw two boxes sitting up on the shelf and smiled. *Yep, we put them up on the shelf in here*. There were two boxes. She climbed up on the step stool and grabbed the first box. She didn't have a cabinet to set it on, so she very carefully climbed back down the step stool and walked around her piles of boxes into cold storage, and put it on the middle shelf above the filing cabinet she had been using. She would put the third box on the top shelf. She moved back out into the main vault and re-situated the step stool right at the end of the shelf. With the open door of the cold storage vault right behind her, she'd be able to climb down and not have to move around the boxes on the floor that way. She climbed up on the step stool, pulled the second box closer to her, and then off the shelf. As the box came off the shelf, the weight within the box suddenly shifted inside, and it caused Amanda to lose her balance. Feeling herself starting to fall backwards, she dropped the box and made a wild grab for the shelf brace. She felt her hand brush against it, but was unable to get a grip as she fell backwards into the cold storage part of the vault. The back of her head hit the floor with a loud thud, and Amanda lost consciousness.

When Amanda had grabbed for the shelf brace, she had managed to trigger the button for the cold storage vault door. While she lay there unconscious, the door began to slide closed. Once it has sealed itself, the light from the single bulb faded and she was left in total darkness.

_Friday, August 21, 1987, 5:05 PM_

Ben handed Lee off to the Agency handlers and they escorted him out to the car to drive him back to the Agency. As he climbed into the car, he felt a cold chill run through him. It reminded him of how he felt when Baroli had kidnapped Amanda right out from under him; a cold chill followed by a feeling of dread that stuck in his stomach. He shook his head; he had Amanda on the brain and was anxious to see her again after a long week, that was all. Between the funny schedule and tedious work of watching security monitors, he was just imagining things. After all, the worst that could happen to her during a filing project was a bad paper cut, right? He chuckled to himself, Amanda would find it so funny that his out of town Zero Contact mission had been babysitting in a safe house right here in the city. Lee then allowed himself to drift back into his daydream of a normal life with Amanda and the boys.

_Friday, August 21, 1987, 5:17 PM_

Amanda heard a groan, and realized that it came from her. She blinked her eyes open cautiously, but everything was pitch black. For a second she panicked and squeaked, "Lee?" and started reaching out blindly. She quickly realized she was lying on her back on the floor, the back of her head hurt like the dickens, and it was dark. She tried to remember what had happened, but the headache was very distracting. She began feeling around the floor until she found the sides of the cabinets, and then she remembered the cold storage vault and her filing project and "The box of cassettes..." she whispered as she slowly pulled herself up to a sitting position. She felt a little dizzy, but it probably would have been worse if she could see. She blinked her eyes and realized her eyes were open, but she still couldn't see anything. *Did I hurt myself so badly I've gone totally blind?* The panic came back until she reached forward and felt the solid wall at her feet. *The doorway to the main vault should be here. But it's shut?* She turned herself around to lean against the door, and tried again to remember what had happened. She pictured herself on the step stool holding the box and then remembered falling backwards and trying to catch herself by grabbing "the shelf" she murmured. She put one hand on the back of her head, and felt stickiness there, and realized it must be blood. She put the pieces together and realized she had sealed herself inside the cold storage vault. No one would know she was in here, and Lee wasn't due back until next week. She began to feel sick to her stomach with fear at the thought of spending an entire weekend locked in here in the dark, and with some kind of head injury, who knows how bad it is. She then remembered the emergency kit. "Flashlight," she said, and slowly got up to her feet, and using the file cabinets to support herself, moved farther into the cold storage vault until she found the emergency kit sitting on top of one of the file cabinets. It took her awihle to get the latch undone, her fingers weren't cooperating. Once she got the kit open, she ran her hands over the contents until she found the flashlight. Closing her eyes, she turned it on, and then slowly opened her eyes. The flashlight worked! She turned back towards the doorway, and saw a small pool of blood on the floor and another spot against the wall where she had rested her head. Her eyes widened, she must have really hit her head hard! She glanced through the contents of the emergency kit. Beyond the flashlight and the first aid kit, there was a box of military rations, a small blanket, some candles and matches, and a container of water. Her injury was probably beyond the first aid kit. She set the flashlight down and used the light to look over the rest of her body. There was some pain in her back and her stomach, but her arms and legs appeared to be all right. *Just the head injury to worry about*. She glanced through the first aid kit and found a booklet with first aid tips. She had to hold it close to the flashlight to read the small print, looking for anything about concussion. The most important thing was to keep the patient awake and monitor them. Well, she was on her own here, so she'd just have to try to keep herself awake. She started to get the candles out and try to light them, when she paused. *Was the vault air-tight? Would she burn up the air in here faster by lighting candles? Would there be enough air to last the whole weekend?* The panic came back, and she grabbed for the flashlight. It dropped out of her shaking hand and landed on the floor, and went out. *Oh my gosh* she thought as she dropped to her knees to find the flashlight in the dark, hoping she hadn't broken the only safe form of light she had. As she felt around the floor, she saw a faint beam of light coming from the wall where the door was. Finally finding the flashlight, she moved closer and moved her head down to floor level. There was a gap, maybe only a half an inch or so, between the floor and the bottom of the door. *OK, not air-tight exactly, but I'm going to take it easy with the candles as long as the flashlight continues to work, just in case.* She moved back into the vault and sat down on the floor. Turning off the light, she looked at the narrow band of light coming through the crack. There was no one to hear her, the Q Bureau door was locked and Lee wasn't due back until Monday, if that. It was probably after 5, everyone would think she had gone home. She groaned, the pain in her head getting worse. She stood up, turned on the flashlight, and found some aspirin in the first aid kit. She didn't have any idea if it was safe to take or not, but at this point, she needed to try something to relieve the pain. She took two and sipped a little water from the container. She had to make sure the water and food lasted as long as possible on the assumption she would be rescued Monday. In the meantime, she sat back down and waited for the medicine to have an effect. She turned off the flashlight to save the batteries and watched the little band of light.

_Friday, August 21, 1987, 6:27 PM_

Lee walked briskly down the corridor of the underground portion of the Agency towards the elevator. First he'd see if Amanda left him any messages up in the Q Bureau, and then head for her house to surprise her. He gave answers as short and concise as he could during his de-briefing. It helped that it had been such a non-event as far as missions go, there wasn't really a lot to say. Now he was off until Monday and would try to spend as much of that time with Amanda if she was free. After reaching ground level, he headed for the stairs and took them two at a time until he reached the Q Bureau door. It was locked, but he could see the light was still on inside. *My Amanda* he thought as he reached for his keys, and unlocked the door quietly, hoping to surprise her. He opened the door quickly, shouting "Surprise!". He glanced around the room, confused. He double checked his desk for any messages, and found none. There was no sign of Amanda, but the vault door was still open. He walked over and saw the piles of boxes filling up the room and called out, "Amanda?". He frowned, because it wasn't like Amanda to leave the vault door unlocked when she went home, especially over a weekend. Then he smiled, imaging that she was probably distracted worrying about him, had pushed the door closed on her way home, and didn't realize that it hadn't closed behind her when she left. He stepped back out of the vault, closed the door, and locked it. He then retreated to the hallway and locked the Q Bureau door before heading for his car and Amanda's house.

Unfortunately for Amanda, the pile of boxes inside the vault blocked Lee's view of the overturned step stool and open box of cassettes lying on the floor behind the stacked boxes. Also unfortunate was that in his haste to get to Amanda's house, he never saw her purse sitting on her chair, as it was pushed up against her desk.

At the same time, Amanda thought she heard Lee's voice call her name. She struggled to her feet and made her ways towards the door calling, "Lee? LEE! I'm in here, Lee!". She began to pound on the wall with one hand, the other still holding the flashlight. "LEE!" *He finished early, he'll get me out of here!* She glanced down, and saw the small strip of light disappear, and heard the sound of the outer vault door closing. The walls of this vault must be more soundproofed than the main vault. He didn't hear her. He was locking her in the vault. "Lee..." she whispered and dropped to her knees, feeling tears leaking out of her eyes. If she had been sitting right by the door instead of the far wall, maybe she could have gotten there in time for him to hear her. Now she would have to make it until Monday when he came back to the office. She sighed, and got back to her feet to get some of the rations out of the emergency kit and another couple of sips of water. Even as scared as she was, she couldn't help but smile a little bit, knowing that Lee was back home safe and sound. He'd get her out of this - he always did. She just needed to be strong until he found out she was missing. She tore at the wrapper on the ration bar and slowly began to chew.

Meanwhile, Lee had made his way down to the parking garage and jumped into his car. The day shift had already left for the day, so there wasn't a lot of cars left, just the cars of those working the night shift and a delivery van. He pulled out of his parking space and headed for the exit. Unfortunately for Amanda, the delivery van blocked Lee's view, or he would have seen Amanda's station wagon still parked in the garage. He decided to stop at home to shower and change clothes and then head for Amanda's. He thought about giving her a call to see if she had plans, but he really wanted to surprise her with being back early. He changed into jeans and a clean shirt, and headed back over to Amanda's. He parked in the spot that let him see the driveway and her bedroom window. The station wagon wasn't there and it looked like all the lights in the house were out. He guessed the family had gone out to a movie or to grab some fast food. He settled back into his seat to wait for his wife and her family to come home. He lowered the window to allow a breeze into the car. The warmth of the day and setting sun helped him to relax, and before he knew it, he had drifted off to sleep in his car.

_Friday, August 21, 1987, 9:27 PM_

Amanda jerked herself awake. It was the second time she had allowed herself to drift off to sleep. The aspirin had helped with the headache a little bit, it was more of a dull ache than a throbbing, pounding sensation now, but she could feel herself getting sleepy. She had gotten up to walk back and forth down the length of the room to try and wake up, but it hadn't really helped much. As she was moving back towards the end of the room, the flashlight showed her notepad and pen sitting on the file cabinet next to the emergency kit and its contents. She grabbed them and took them with her to the end of the room. Perhaps doodling would keep her awake. She drew nonsense on the pad for a few minutes before the flashlight flickered, just once, but enough to make her nervous, so she turned the light off. Once again sitting in the dark, she began to fear for her situation. If her head injury was serious enough, there was no way she was going to be able to stay awake until Monday. She might not wake up if she feel asleep. She might be making a mountain of a molehill, but she had a very bad feeling about this. Her fear made her even more queasy - or that might have been the ration bars, they weren't the most satisfying thing to eat. Not the best of last meals. She felt herself tear up and tried to get herself back under control. But now that her mind had opened to the possibility, it seemed to be all she could think about. She took a deep breath, and got back to her feet. She turned the flashlight on long enough to find the candles and matches, light one, and set it on the floor by her. She also grabbed the lid of the emergency box before sitting down next to the candle. She turned off the flashlight and found the single candle provided just enough light to write by. She picked up her notepad, tore off the pages of notes she had written about the boxes and set them on top of the filing cabinet net to her. She put the lid of the emergency kit on her legs to serve as a desk, put the notepad on top of it, and began to write, "_Dear Lee,_" She paused, feeling tears threaten again, and took a couple of deep breaths. She still hoped for rescue on Monday, but had to face the possibility that she wouldn't make it. She had things she needed to say to her husband, her mother, and her kids, and these letters could be her last chance to say them. Having calmed down, she started writing.

_Friday, August 21, 1987, 10:30 PM_

Lee came awake with a start. The evening had cooled down with the sun setting, and he looked around to get his bearings. He was parked in front of Amanda's house, but still no sign of the station wagon and no lights on in the house. He frowned, wondering if the family had decided to go out of town for the weekend. Amanda might have wanted to take advantage of him being tied up to spend some time with her family. He sighed, and started the car to head for home. He hadn't checked his message at the apartment, maybe Amanda left one letting him know where they were going, and he could join them! If not, he'd find some way to keep himself busy while he waited for her to come home. As he pulled away, he missed seeing Dottie looking out the front windows, wondering just how late Amanda meant to work that night. She had called to say it would be late, but didn't say it would be one of those all-night sessions.

_Friday, August 21, 1987, 12:30 PM_

Amanda finished the last of her letters. As she had with the others, she folded the pages in half, wrote the person's name on the outside, and sealed it with a band aid from the first aid kit. She had one long letter for Lee, and shorter letters for Phillip, Jamie, and her mother. By the time she finished, she was feeling very drowsy. She ate another ration bar and drank a little more water. She shook the container of water and didn't like the sound of how much was left. Tomorrow she'd need to ration it more carefully. She was getting ready to set aside her impromptu desk, when she realized she could get a message outside of the cold storage vault at least. She wrote on the next page, "HELP - I'm trapped in Cold Storage Vault - Amanda King." She set her desk aside and got to her feet. A wave of dizziness swept her and she put a hand to the back of her head where the throbbing had started up again. Still sticky, although the blood should have probably dried by now - that probably meant she was still bleeding a bit. She made her way to the door and laid her note on the floor and using both hands, carefully pushed it under the door and into the main vault. The piece of paper slid under the door without any problems, and she left a set of bloody fingerprints from one hand on the paper. She went back to her nest, took a couple more aspirin dry to conserve water. She covered herself with the small blanket as she shook with a chill. The candle flickered out just after she got comfortable, with the letters to her family resting in her lap and the flashlight resting in her right hand.


	5. Chapter 5

_Saturday, August 22, 1987, 8:15 AM_

Lee has tossed and turned for most of the night. That sense of dread had returned when he got home the previous night and didn't find any message from Amanda on his answering machine. He had decided to go back over to Amanda's first thing in the morning, but sleep hadn't come easily. He took a quick shower, threw on some jeans, a t-shirt and a jacket and headed for his car. He thought about calling ahead, but if they had a late night the previous night, they might be sleeping in, and he'd hate to wake Amanda or her family up. As he waited at a stop light, he felt a strange sensation and glanced towards the passenger seat. His eyes widened at seeing Amanda there, looking pale and weak. She turned to look at him and whispered, "I'm waiting for you." before fading out of existance. It was just like the time he thought he saw her in her kitchen when she was kidnapped by Baroli. He drove as fast as he dared over to her house. He saw Phillip and Jamie playing basketball in the driveway, but still no sign of Amanda's car. Someone must be home though, Amanda rarely left the boys home alone, so he reached for the car phone and dialed her number. The phone rang four times before Amanda's mother Dottie answered the phone, "King Residence." Lee cleared his throat, "Uhm, good morning Mrs. West, this is..." Dottie interrupted, "Lee, how nice to hear from you, I hope you're calling to let me know Amanda is on her way home from that editing session. She said she was staying late, but didn't say it would be an all-nighter." Lee sat in his car stunned for several seconds. *Amanda didn't come home last night?* "Uhm, Mrs. West, actually I'm out on location working on a shoot, have been all week. Did you say Amanda was going to be working late at an editing session?" Dottie nodded and said, "Yes, she called late yesterday afternoon to say she was almost finished with this editing job on the documentary about traffic in DC and would be home later. But she never came home last night, so she must have hit a snag with the equipment or something, I guess. I haven't heard from her since then." Lee's sense of dread had escalated to fear, but he kept his voice calm, "Well, I'll just call into the office then, Mrs. West, thank you very much." "You're welcome, Lee, and please, tell Amanda she needs to call in and let me know when she's going to work that late, at least leave me a message. I worry about her when she disappears like this." Lee nodded in agreement with her, "I'll tell her, Mrs. West, thanks again." He hung up, and discreetly got the car turned around without the boys seeing him. As he headed for the IFF offices, he dialed the direct line to the Q Bureau and let the phone ring over and over and over again as he drove. After at least twenty rings he gave up to focus on driving and picked up speed.

When he pulled into the parking garage, there were only a few cars, the night shift having turned over duties to the weekend staff. Sure enough, he saw Amanda's car parked in the parking garage. He racked his brain, knowing that he hadn't seen the car the previous night when he left. Then remembered the delivery van, and figured the car had been behind the van and blocked from his view. He raced towards the stairs to the door, calling out the password and grabbing his ID badge as quickly as possible before running up the stairs to the Q Bureau. He unlocked the door, turned on the light, and looked around the room. No sign of Amanda. He moved towards her desk, planning on looking for any hint of where she had gone. When he pulled her chair out, he found her purse sitting there. *She'd never leave without her purse. She has to be here somewhere!* Lee's gaze fell on the vault door. *Oh God* He unlocked the vault door as quickly as he could, getting the combination wrong twice before successfully getting it open. All he could see were the piles of boxes taking up most of the floor space. Amanda had left an aisle around and to the left, so Lee started walking around them. Once he got around them, he could see the fallen box of cassette tapes, the overturned step stool, and a yellow piece of paper. Stepping forward quickly, he knelt down, picked up Amanda's note, and felt his heart jump into his throat. Three distinct fingerprints in blood were visible on the side of the paper. He stood up and started running his hand over the shelf brace looking for the button that would open the cold storage vault. As soon as he felt it trigger and heard the door start to open, he dashed back into the Q Bureau and dialed the emergency number. "This is Scarecrow in the Q Bureau office, I need a Nest team up here ASAP, Amanda's been hurt, I don't know how badly. Please hurry!" He slammed down the phone, pulled open the Q Bureau door, and ran back into the vault and through the doorway of the cold storage vault. What he saw when the light bulb came on scared him to death; reminding him too much of the nightmare from their honeymoon when Amanda had been shot.

Amanda was sitting propped up against the far wall, her head tilted to the side, a bloodstain on the wall behind her. A flashlight rested loosely in one hand, and the other hand held onto a pile of papers sitting in her lap. He hurried up to her and reached for the hand holding the papers, checking for a pulse. He found one, but it was faint and thready. He glanced down at the papers and realized they were some kind of letters, addressed to Amanda's loved ones. He swallowed hard, and pocketed the pile of papers in his jacket pocket before the Nest team arrived. He was afraid to move her, not knowing what her injuries were. He called out her name, "Amanda, Amanda, sweetheart, it's Lee, I'm here, time to wake up now. Amanda.. please wake up, please darling wake up." He heard the sound of people entering the Q Bureau and called back, "In here! We're in the Vault!" He hated to leave Amanda for even a moment, but got up and moved to the cold storage entrance. The NEST doctor on call was there, along with two orderlies and a gurney, "Amanda's in here, she's hurt her head." The doctor came around the boxes and he and Lee returned to Amanda. "Help me lay her down on the ground, but move her very carefully. I want to check her over before we carry her out to the gurney." The doctor gave her a quick head to toe inspection. "No broken bones in her arms or legs, nor ribs that I can tell. There is definitely a very serious blow to the back of the head, we'll have to do X-rays to see if she fractured her skull or sustained any brain damage. She appears to be unconscious, since she hasn't responded to our voices or being moved, perhaps even in a light coma. Let's carry her out of here." Lee automatically moved to pick Amanda up in his arms, saying "Just lead me around the boxes in the other room." He had a strange sense of deja vu of the time he carried her out of a house after she had been poisoned. That seemed like a lifetime ago, back when he didn't even want her working with him. Now they were partners in every since of the word, even if no one knew about their marriage. Lee laid her down carefully on the gurney, and the orderlies strapped her down and started pushing her towards the elevators that would take them down to the infirmary. Lee quickly locked the Q Bureau door, then caught up with the gurney. Lee held on to her hand as they went down the hallway and they squeezed everyone into the elevator.

Once they got downstairs, the doctor told Lee to make himself comfortable in the waiting room while they did a full examination of her condition. He and the orderlies took Amanda behind the doors towards examination rooms. Lee went to a phone and called Billy. "Billy, it's Lee. There has been an accident down here at the office." Billy asked, "Let me guess, Amanda?" Lee sighed, "Yes, I found her locked in the cold storage vault with a nasty bump on her head. I'm going back upstairs to resecure the vault and see what the hell happened while the doctor is looking her over." Billy replied, "I'll be right down." Lee hung up, told the nurse on duty that he'd be right back, and to call up to the Q Bureau if they needed him. Returning upstairs, it didn't take long for him to piece together what had happened. He remembered the box of cassettes being up on the shelf, and the location of the step stool made it obvious Amanda was pulling down the box when she fell. She must have tried to catch herself on the shelf, and made enough contact to activate the door, but not enough to stop her from falling. He picked up the flashlight Amanda had in her hand and used the additional light to look over the cold storage area more closely. He could see the bloody stain on the floor where she probably landed, and a bloody spot on the wall where she was resting her head. There were bloody fingerprints in various places around the room. He would ask Billy to have a team come in and double check for any signs of foul play, but it sure looked like just an accident. He set the flashlight down and closed up the cold storage vault and the regular vault and relocked the Q Bureau before heading back downstairs to the infirmary. While waiting for the elevator, he put his hands in his pockets and heard the crinkle of paper. *Amanda's papers* He took a deep breath. He knew what they probably were. If Amanda thought she was hurt badly enough, and might not be found until Monday, she probably thought she was going to die, and wrote letters goodbye to her family. That would be so like Amanda to want to comfort others. He closed his eyes, in pain himself thinking about Amanda feeling that way locked in that dark room. His eyes flew open as he realized that she must have been trapped in there last night when he was in the Q Bureau. He would have noticed if the cold storage door was open when he looked inside the vault. He himself locked the outer vault door and left her there all night when she was hurt. The feeling of guilt was overwhelming. What kind of husband was he turning out to be? He let her get shot on their honeymoon, and then locked her in a vault overnight when she was hurt. He groaned, and shook his head. Time for feeling guilty later, now he just needed to be with his wife. The elevator finally came, and he got in and headed for the infirmary level.

Billy Melrose was waiting for him in the waiting room area. Lee walked over to him and put his hands into his jeans pockets, not wanting to draw attention to the papers stuffed into his jacket pocket. "Any news yet?" Billy shook his head, "The nurse said they were getting her an IV for dehydration and getting ready to do some X rays after they ran some blood tests." Lee nodded and began to pace. After about 30 minutes, the doctor came back out the doorway looking very serious. "Scarecrow, Melrose, I think we have her stabilized for now. The only injury appears to be to her head. Unfortunately, I can't do any more testing until I speak to her next of kin." Lee paled; it was obviously more serious an injury than he thought. He was scared he might facing the possibility of losing her again. He cleared his throat, "That's me." Billy gave him an odd look, and the doctor shook his head, "No, Scarecrow, partners don't count. I believe she lives with her mother, that's probably her closest relative, can you get her down here?" Lee shook his head and thought *Damn the consequences*, "NO, I'm her closest relative, not her mother." He took a deep breath and looked at Billy as he softly said, "Amanda is more than just my partner, she is also my wife." Billy's eyes widened in surprise. He had known they were a couple but had no idea they had gotten married! It didn't take long to put the pieces together, "The vacation to California...." Lee nodded, "It was supposed to be our honeymoon. Doctor, please tell me what's wrong with Amanda." The doctor nodded, and said, "I'll need to speak to you privately about Mrs. King's, er, Stetson's condition. Please follow me." Lee turned back to Billy, and Billy waved him away, "We'll talk later - believe me, we will talk about it later." Lee nodded and followed the doctor to his office. The doctor went behind his desk and Lee sat down in the chair in front of him. The doctor looked at Lee very seriously before beginning to speak. "We run a standard battery of blood tests when we bring a patient in. As we were preparing her for the X ray, the results came in with a surprising development. Do you know what I'm referring to?" Lee's blank look communicated that he didn't, so the doctor took a deep breath, "It's possible she doesn't even know herself. Lee, your wife is pregnant."

Lee felt the air rush out of his body. *Amanda's pregnant? She didn't say anything! How.. when...* The doctor continued, "Because of the pregnancy, we have to modify our treatment and get some consent forms filled out. We can take precautions for the X rays of her head to protect the baby, but we risk causing harm to the baby if we take X rays of the rest of her body. Plus the medication we would give her for the head injury could harm the baby. We can work around it, but need these forms filled out. I'm sorry to have to tell you this under the circumstances, Scarecrow. It should a moment of happy news." Lee whispered, "Is the baby OK?" The doctor shrugged, "It's too early to tell. I would guess she's not more than a few weeks along. We didn't find any signs of a miscarriage, which is a good sign that the fetus survived the initial trauma of her injury. We just need to get her through this for both her sake and the baby's. We can't ask Mrs. Stetson about whether she was late or not to pinpoint when the baby was conceived because she is still unconscious." Lee nodded, "Give me the forms." He signed where the doctor indicated, and then stood up. "I do need to call her mother; she'd want to be here. Somehow I have to tell her that not only am I married to her daughter, but we're expecting a child, and her daughter is badly hurt and not in a hospital." The doctor didn't look surprised, "So your marriage was a secret so you could continue to work together?" Lee nodded, "That, and we wanted to keep her family safe from the business as much as possible. I bring a lot more baggage than she does and we thought it would be too risky." He shook his head, "Better to have faced the risk together than keep our feelings for each other a secret from the world, I know that now. I just hope it's not too late..." his voice drifted off and he closed his eyes, trying to get his composure. He hated emotional scenes; especially making them.

The doctor walked around his desk and laid a hand on his shoulder, "She'll get the best care possible here, Scarecrow, her and the baby, you have my word on that." Lee nodded and shook the doctor's hand, "Let me know when I can see her, please?" The doctor nodded and headed back towards where Amanda was being treated and Lee returned to the waiting room. Billy was packing back and forth, and stopped when Lee emerged. "There is a conference room over here, why don't we go in there and have a talk?" Lee nodded somberly, not knowing quite what to expect, "I need to call Dottie. She'll want to come, can you arrange a car to pick her up and bring her through the back door?" Billy nodded and spoke softly, "We'll arrange that after we talk, Scarecrow." Billy opened the door to the conference room and waited for Lee to enter the room before turning on the light and shutting the door softly behind him.


	6. Chapter 6

_Saturday, August 22, 1987, 9:30AM_

Lee sat down in one of the chairs at the conference table and put his head in his hands. This was all just too much to take in, his entire life had been turned on its ear in less than an hour. Amanda had been critically hurt - again. Their secret marriage wouldn't be a secret anymore and she was pregnant. Why had they never gotten around to talking about kids? Maybe because they just assumed it wouldn't be possible, wouldn't fit into their lives. He rubbed at his eyes, feeling tears burning there, and not sure if they're tears of joy about the baby or tears of fear about Amanda's health.

Billy sat down across from his best agent and just watched him for a few seconds, trying to figure out how to approach things. He was glad Lee had to go back and talk to the doctor, he needed a few minutes to wrap his mind around the idea that Lee, the confirmed bachelor, and Amanda, the suburban housewife, were actually MARRIED. He decided to start with an easy question and work his way towards the harder ones, "So Lee, how is Amanda?" Lee answered softly, "Pregnant." Billy's eyes widened. *Well so much for starting with an easy question!*

"Pregnant?" He repeated, just to make sure he heard Lee correctly. Lee hadn't even realized what he said, and looked up, a little surprised. Billy could see the fear in his eyes, and could understand all the reasons behind it. His wife was critically injured, he just revealed a very important secret to his boss, and apparently his wife was also pregnant and hadn't told him yet. He had known something like this would happen, something always goes wrong when it's been too quiet around the office, but this sets a record for surprises! He cleared his throat before continuing, speaking softly like he would one of his own children, which he felt like Lee was almost one of them anyway. "Lee, why don't you start at the beginning and tell me how this all happened."

Lee just continued to look at him for at least a minute, trying to get his thoughts together. He had pondered having this conversation with Billy dozens of times in his head, he and Amanda had even discussed it during conversations about how they would reveal their secret. They never planned on it being a secret forever, they just never knew when the time would be right. He blinked a couple of times, then sighed. "Billy, I don't know exactly when it happened, but somewhere along the way I fell in love with the most amazing woman I have ever met in my life, and stranger than that, she fell in love with me too." He folded his hands on the table top and looked down at them. "Remember when you first started throwing the two of us together, I hated it. I never wanted to work with a partner again, and you kept insisting that we worked well together. The first time I think I stopped seeing her as a bother was during the Delano case, do you remember? We had a disagreement and she stood up to me and it made me really angry. But when Hollander poisoned her, and she was lying there unconscious - something changed. I cared what happened to Amanda. I carried her out of there and to the paramedics, and rode with her to the hospital. Seeing her lying there so pale, so helpless, I wanted to protect her." Lee took a deep breath before continuing, obviously still upset by the memory. "Every time we'd have a close call like that, I'd feel myself caring more and more about her. When Redding kidnapped her and I was faced with two Amandas hanging from that building and knowing I had to save the right one because there wouldn't be time for both, I was so scared I wouldn't be able to pick. If she hadn't said 'Oh my gosh' I don't know if I would have been able to pick the right one. When she got poisoned by eating my chicken salad sandwich I felt so guilty about that. That one night when we were trapped out in the swamp, I had her in my arms and almost kissed her, I mean really kissed her. We had kissed during cases before, but they'd just been work. The next day, when we were back in the office I tried to dismiss it as just two people seeking a little warmth, because I was worried she'd be upset about almost kissing me." He smiled at the memory, "She told me, 'Not exactly.' That's when I began to wonder if Amanda had feelings for me too. It took awhile, but I was finally ready to admit I had feelings for Amanda during the Krutiov case. When we wrapped things up and returned to the Q Bureau, we kissed for the first time that wasn't part of a case. You probably remember that?" Lee glanced back up at Billy, and saw him frowning. Billy started to smile as he remembered standing at the Q Bureau door and getting read to enter when he thought he had heard the lock. They hadn't answered his knock - now he knew he was right in guessing why.

Lee continued, "Eventually I found myself thinking of her as "My Amanda". I don't remember exactly when it happened, but I was thinking of her as mine. We started going out to dinner and spending more time together. It was the Stemwinder affair that really brought us together, I was planning on going underground and I just couldn't leave without telling her that I loved her. Turns out, she felt the same way and wouldn't let me leave without her. That's how we ended up on the run together. After that, we tried to spend as much time together as we could outside of work. I had been thinking about the possibility of marriage in the days right before Baroli kidnapped her, after that I promised myself that when I got her back, I would ask her to marry me. Things didn't go exactly as planned, but just like during Stemwinder when I didn't know if I'd ever see her again, I knew I had to know if she would marry me. She said yes." Billy nodded, he remembered how out of control Lee had seemed while Amanda was missing. He had thought it was more than just one partner worrying about the other, knowing they were in love made everything that happened make more sense. Lee continued, "We were engaged and happy, but both afraid to start making any wedding plans. We knew being married could end our careers with the Agency, or at least one of our careers, and neither of us wanted that, and we were both kind of scared about taking that step in our relationship. When we realized our fears were holding us back, we moved forward. We got married right after the case with Nick Grant wrapped up, and then left for our honeymoon in California. Amanda getting shot was a just a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time." Billy remembered the Grant case, and how Amanda and Lee seemed to be running around a lot, now he knew it was wedding preparations keeping them busy, not the case. He also remembered how devastated Lee had sounded on the phone when he called to check in and Amanda's life was still hanging in the balance. Lee sighed, "Remember when I started talking a lot about houses? I was dreaming about ending the secret, having her and the kids and her mom move into a new house with me and living like a normal family. Then reality hit that it wouldn't be safe. So we stayed at my place on weekends when she didn't have to be home and I pretended to be her boyfriend to her family, to let them get to know me better. We had talked about having a second wedding to renew our vows, but let everyone think we were getting married for the first time. Just would do it when the time was right." There were tears in his eyes as he looked over at his boss and good friend. "I wanted to tell you, Billy, but we knew you'd have to tell Dr. Smyth and we'd be split up. We trust each other to watch our backs, and didn't want to get split up, nor did either one of us want to quit the Agency. We should have come to you sooner, I know you'd have helped us out, but we didn't want to put you in a bad position." Lee's head hung in shame, "I'm sorry, Billy."

Billy reached over and placed one hand on Lee's still clasped ones, "Lee, I understand why you had to keep it a secret, but it won't be a secret anymore, especially once that baby starts making itself visible, right?" He put a light tone in his voice, trying to get Lee to focus on something positive. He would have a devil's time getting this past Dr. Smyth, but somehow he would because he wasn't going to lose his best team completely. No more Omega One assignments or Peacock Dances, but that rule against married people being partners is probably the one broken the most and he'd make it work somehow for his favorite two agents. Lee smiled a little bit and met Billy's eyes, "Yeah, a baby, our baby.... God, if she doesn't lose the baby, I'm scared, Billy. It's scary enough with Amanda's life in danger, but now there is a baby..." Billy patted his hands before standing, "I'm going upstairs and get started on some paperwork we'll need to get things straightened out here. I'll be back in a bit. I'll arrange a car to go pick up Mrs. West, you call her, and we'll make sure she doesn't realize she's not at a normal hospital somehow, all right?" Lee nodded, glancing at the telephone sitting on a table in the conference room. He offered Billy a hand, and Billy shook it. "Congratulations, Scarecrow, both on your marriage and your impending arrival. I couldn't be happier for you and Amanda that you found each other. I always knew I was right to put you together." He put on a big grin, which Lee returned in smaller measure. Billy left the room, shutting the door behind him, and telling the nurse to call him if there was any change in Mrs. Stetson's condition. He then headed up to his office to get to work.

Lee sat there and stared at the phone, remembering how difficult the call was to make when Amanda had been shot in California. This would be even worse, because he knew he'd have to come clean with Dottie about his relationship with Amanda, and probably their professions as well. This would be a hundred times harder than telling Billy. He pulled the phone over to the conference room table, and started to dial Amanda's home.


	7. Chapter 7

Lee took a deep breath and waited for Dottie to answer the phone, half hoping that she wouldn't; maybe she'd be out in the garden or something. No such luck, after just 3 rings she answered the phone, "King Residence, Amanda, is that you?" Lee swallowed, "No, Mrs. West, it's Lee again." Dottie sighed, "I'm sorry, Lee, Amanda still hasn't come home or called me." Lee struggled to get the words out, "I know, Mrs. West, I found her at work. There's been an accident." Dottie went silent. Both she and Lee remembered vividly the last time he had said those exact words to her on the phone when Amanda had been shot in California. After a long pause, she said softly, "Not another accident like in California?" Lee replied quickly, "No! No, she hasn't been shot. She fell in our office and unfortunately she was working here alone last night. I'm waiting to hear from the doctor now, but I think you should be here. I'm sending a car over to pick you up, can the boys stay with Joe for a bit?" Dottie bit her lower lip, "You don't want me to bring the boys to the hospital, Lee?" Lee sighed, "Amanda is still unconscious, Mrs. West, and I don't know if the boys should see her like that." Dottie sniffled, "I'll call Joe right after I hang up with you, Lee, and if he can't come over, I'll ask one of the neighbors to stay with the boys. She's going to be all right, isn't she, Lee?" Lee answered softly, "I hope so, I hope I found her in time." Dottie was silent on the other end of the line; Lee wondered if she had heard his reply. She said softly, "I'll be watching for the car and see you soon, Lee." She hung up before he could say goodbye. He hung up the phone and rubbed at his eyes. This was going to be a hundred times harder than telling Billy. Telling Billy was hard, and he knew that Billy was on his side. He knew Dottie loved Amanda and could only pray she'd understand why they kept things a secret from her. He also knew that to make her understand, he'd have to share their other secret with her - about their jobs. He sat in the conference room for awhile, trying to get his emotions back under control. It was California all over again, except closer to home, and there was a baby to consider. Amanda and Dottie would need him to be strong right now.

Once he felt back under control, Lee got up from the conference room table and went back out to the lobby just as the doctor came through the door looking for him. Lee walked quickly over to him, "How is Amanda doing, Doctor?" The doctor looked grimly at him, "So far, so good, her signs are stable and no sign of a miscarriage yet. That she hasn't woken up yet is disturbing, but not surprising considering our findings." Lee held his breath as the doctor continued, "Amanda has a fracture of her skull; a crack running right down the middle of the back of her head. From what we can tell there doesn't appear to be any bleeding in the brain, nor any pressure yet, but we're going to have to continue to monitor that closely for a period of time. It's quite possible she's slipped into this light coma as her body's own defense mechanism to protect the baby. We're giving her fluids and nutrients, we may just have to wait the coma out." Lee took a deep breath, "Can I see her soon?" The doctor nodded, "Yes, we're transferring her from the examination room to a regular room. Once we have her comfortable, you can see her." Lee nodded, "I called her mother, and she's coming. Billy is sending a car to pick her up and bring her here." He ran a hand through his hair, "She's going to recognize that Amanda isn't in a hospital, I just know she will, and I'll have to explain a lot to her. Maybe Dottie should see her first." The doctor nodded, "Whatever you two agree on is fine with me, we'll just need to limit it to one visitor at a time. I'll let you know when we're ready for you."

The doctor went back through the doors and Lee went to sit down in the lobby and wait for Dottie to arrive. As he sat down, he heard the crinkle of paper from his pocket. *Amanda's notes* He slowly reached his hand into his pocket and pulled out four packets of paper. One was addressed to "Mother", one was addressed to "Phillip", one was addressed to "Jamie", and finally one was addressed to him. Each one had been folded over in half and sealed with a band aid, probably from the first aid kit Amanda had insisted on keeping in the office in her emergency kit. He smiled, remembering when she brought the components for it into the office from the store and assembled it. He had told her it wasn't needed, they could call for help if they needed it from the Agency and she had said, "Better prepared than caught unawares." He had let her have her emergency kit. Now he was so glad he did. Without that flashlight and the candles, she should have been trapped in the dark all that time. "Amanda Knows Best," he murmured quietly under his breath. Lee put the first three notes back into his pocket and held his letter, debating on whether he should read it or not. Amanda was going to pull through this, he had to believe that, but he couldn't deny being curious about what her thoughts were, what she wanted her last words to him to be if she didn't make it. Did she know about the baby? Would she have told him in a letter that he had lost his wife and child at once? He put the letter into his other pocket. He didn't want to read it now either way; he couldn't let himself get all emotional before Dottie arrived. He could think about it and read it later.

He watched the clock, and the doctor came back out about 15 minutes later to say that Amanda was ready for visitors. Lee stood up, and told the nurse to let him know when Amanda's mother, Dottie West, had arrived. He followed the doctor back to Amanda's room. He took a deep breath, and entered the room. Amanda was propped up in bed with a large pillow under her head. The doctor spoke, "It's a special pillow to support her head without putting any pressure on the back of her head where the injury is." There was a heart monitor beeping away, and several IVs hooked up into her left arm. The doctor said, "I'll leave you two alone for a few minutes." Lee walked slowly over to the side of the bed by Amanda's right hand. There was a stool close by that he pulled over to sit down on, and he reached for her hand. Her hand was warm in his, and he held it up to his cheek, reminded once again of watching her lying in bed in California under that oxygen tent. Once again, he felt so totally helpless, things were completely out of his control, and it was a feeling he hated. He started talking to Amanda, it had helped him feel less helpless to talk to her before. "Amanda. It's Lee. You're going to be OK. I found you, you're out of the vault and down in the infirmary. Your mother is on her way to see you right now." A tear ran out of his eye and landed on her hand as it rested on his cheek. "Amanda, please won't you wake up? I need you here so badly. I told Billy that we're married. I'm going to tell your mother, you should be helping me do that, and we're having a baby, darling. A baby! Did you know yet? I'm so proud of you, darling, I'm sure you were so brave being trapped in that dark vault all by yourself, thinking you'd be there all weekend I bet. But I got back early and I found you and you're getting help and you'll be OK. You just need to wake up." He set her hand back down on the bed, and rested his hand on top of it. He let his fingers run back and forth across the back of her knuckles. "I love you, Mrs. Stetson. Do you remember, I told you that when you woke up in California. I love calling you Mrs. Stetson, I love thinking of you as Mrs. Stetson, even if everyone still thinks you are Amanda King. I love wearing my wedding band, and seeing you wear your rings." He took a deep breath, his emotional control starting to slip.

"Amanda, I love you so much. I am so proud of how far you've come in the past four years here at the Agency. You're the best Agent I've ever worked with, and I'm so proud to call you my partner. I'm just as proud to call you my wife, and to know you're going to be the mother of my child in 8 more months." He moved his second hand to rest very lightly on her abdomen, where right now he knew a tiny little life was forming and fighting to live along with it's mother. "I know I don't know anything about being part of a family, but you'll teach me, I know you will. I love the boys and your mother so much. I barely remember Mum and Dad any more, I lost them when I was so young. I hope your mother forgives me for our deception, and can learn to accept me as her son-in-law. She seems like a good Mom to have, I think she likes me, and I don't think you'd mind sharing her with me. Oh Amanda, please wake up."

Lee let his head drop on top of his hand resting on top of Amanda's and let himself start to cry. It quickly evolved to sobbing as he let his emotions come out, unable to hold them back anymore. He couldn't lose his Amanda and his child, not now, not so soon after almost losing her before, and certainly not to a stupid accident. He would never be able to walk into the Q Bureau again. He might never be able to face the Agency again if he lost her. God, he didn't know how he'd face life without her, without Dottie and the boys. They didn't know he was part of the family and if he lost Amanda before the truth came out, he'd lose them all. He started when he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder. Thinking it was a nurse, he lifted his head and turned it to ask, "Is my time up?" He froze - as it was Dottie standing there and not the nurse. From the tears running down her face, and the look of confusion in her eyes, she had not just arrived, and had heard at least part of his speech to Amanda - if not all of it. He started to stand up, mumbling "Mrs. West..." Her hand pressed down on his shoulder, keeping him in the chair. Her voice was very calm, icy calm, perhaps too calm, "No need to get up yet, Lee, please stay here with me and your wife for a moment. Then, I think we should have a talk and some coffee."

He sat very still on the stool and swore to himself. She had heard. He hadn't formed any plan about how he was going to tell her, but certainly it wasn't going to come out like that. Dottie continued to speak, "Mr. Melrose met me at the entrance to escort me to the infirmary. I remember him very well, Lee, when you and Amanda had that little mix-up and had to run away together. I also recognize the style of these corridors, it's the same as that place when I got interviewed when we were trapped at that Marshmallow factory. Lots of things are starting to make sense to me now. California wasn't a vacation, it was a honeymoon, wasn't it, Lee?" Lee whispered, "Yes." He pulled his hand away from Amanda's abdomen and wiped at his eyes. He felt Dottie's hand tighten its grip on his shoulder and she said, "I think we both could use that coffee now." Lee nodded, and began to stand up as Dottie backed away. He leaned down and kissed Amanda gently on the cheek, then backed away from the bed. Dottie stepped forward and gently brushed the hair away from her face, and kissed Amanda on the forehead. She rose up, and turned to face Lee. Her eyes had hardened. She was a woman on a mission - seeking answers - and he knew he was going to get a first class interrogation that would put the Agency's best to shame.

He led the way out of Amanda's room and towards the conference room. He asked the nurse if she could bring some coffee into the conference room, and the nurse nodded. Billy was standing in the lobby area, having waited after delivering Dottie to the infirmary. Lee nodded at him, and moved into the conference room. Lee stayed standing until Dottie entered the room and she sat down at the table. The nurse brought in a tray with a coffee pot and a couple of coffee mugs, along with cream and sugar. After setting it on the table she said softly, "I'll let you both know if there is any change while you talk." Lee then sat down, and Dottie reached for the coffee pot, pouring two cups of coffee and setting one mug down in front of Lee. She added just a touch of cream and sugar to hers and began stirring it. Lee watched her take a sip, afraid to move, not knowing how the formidable Dottie West was going to react to all of this. As she opened her mouth to speak, he braced himself both physically and emotionally.


	8. Chapter 8

_Author's Note: Thank you all so much for the kind reviews, you are all great motivators for keeping me writing. Here is your awaited confrontation with Lee and Dottie - I didn't dare keep you waiting too long for it._

Dottie softly said, "First, I think you had better start calling me Dottie; Mrs. West is far too formal a form of address for your mother-in-law. Second, I want you to tell me when and how you and Amanda really met."

Lee kept his eyes on his coffee cup as he began to speak. "It was October of 1983. I was investigating the case of the murders of several government agents. We finally got a lead, and I met up with someone who passed the information on to me. Unfortunately he was killed shortly after giving me the information, and I took off running with the lead hidden in a package. I got to the train station. Do you remember Amanda taking Dean to the train station in her nightgown and long camel coat?" He glanced up to Dottie's chin, just enough to see her head nod in the affirmative. Lee took a sip of coffee and continued, "Well, she had put him on the train and was walking down the platform when I saw her. I was being chased and needed someone to give the package I carried to another agent to bring in. The agreed meet was to take place on that train, and I was to give the package to a man in a red hat. So I asked Amanda to help me, a complete stranger, I begged her to help me. Our eyes met - and my world was never quite the same after that. She agreed to help me, something in my eyes she told me later, but when she got on the train, everyone in that car was wearing a red hat, so she brought the package home. I had to track her down to recover it, after I got away from the guys who were chasing me. We connected a cooking show to the murders, well, Amanda made the connection actually. She impressed my boss, Billy Melrose, so much, he offered her a job working at the Agency. That's how we met and started working together sort of as part-time partners."

Dottie thought for a moment and then said, "Mrs. Welch and her Pilgrim's Peach Puff, I remember that. So she got a job as a spy because of a random meeting at the train station? She didn't have the training for that kind of job. As the professional, why didn't you try to dissuade her?" Lee took another sip of coffee before continuing, "I tried to discourage her so many times that first year or so. I was rude and obnoxious to her, and never complimented her when she did a great job, which she did time and time again. I found it hard to admit that someone who was an amateur, who hadn't received all of the training I had, could do the job just as well, just in her own unique way. Plus you know Amanda, when she sets her mind to something, she won't give up easily. She loved her work, and loved feeling like she was making the world a better place for her boys to grow up. I remember one time when she almost did quit the Agency, in part because of how mean I was to her over something that was totally not her fault. I was angry about the situation and took it out on her. It was totally unfair of me, but she forgave me, and we gave it another shot. Things really started to come together for us after that. She has a natural talent for this kind of work. There was one other time when she took a private security job because it paid better, but it turned out to be a front for illegal activities. Amanda helped break the case, and came back to work with me, and got a raise. Over time, she got some of the official training, although it didn't always work out for the best. She has skills that you can't teach at the Agency; understanding people, good instincts, and she was so normal, no one would take her for an Agent. It took quite awhile before I finally accepted her as my partner, even thought it wasn't official since she was a civilian and not a real Agent yet."

Dottie poured herself some more coffee, and kept it black and took a long sip. "So what happened after that, Lee?" Lee looked up the ceiling, and couldn't help but smile a bit at the memory of that time in their lives. "Once that happened, we actually became friends, really good friends, and then it started to grow into something more. I tried not to fall for her, I thought I was totally the wrong kind of man for her, a divorcee with two kids and a mortgage wouldn't be interested in a confirmed bachelor with no real family experience. I never thought I could make her happy in the way she deserved." He sighed, and rubbed a hand over his eyes before taking another sip of his coffee. "I had fallen in love with her, and fallen hard, but couldn't bring myself to tell her. Until that mess with the Russians when she and I had to go on the run. That gave me the courage to tell her I loved her, and she loved me too!" Lee finally looked at Dottie's face and smiled, "As frightening as the situation was at that moment, I was the happiest man on the planet because Amanda loved me." Dottie's facial expression didn't change, and Lee quickly looked back down. "After we got everything straightened out, Amanda became a full-time Agent and officially my partner, and our relationship grew closer. I had finally stopped being afraid of my feelings for her, and quickly realized that I wanted to ask her to marry me, but I wasn't sure how we could make it work. Married agents aren't allowed to work together, and neither of us would want to leave the field. Then there was an incident that is classified, so I really can't tell you many details, but once again it scared me into taking our relationship to the next level. I proposed, and she accepted." Dottie looked down at her coffee cup, and her forehead crinkled as she thought. It reminded Lee so much of Amanda. "When was this incident, Lee?" Lee answered, "October 1986." Dottie nodded, "Wasn't that when we first met? I remember you coming by the house and acting very strangely, and I thought you were trying to sell something at first." Lee nodded and said softly, "Amanda was missing, and I needed to feel closer to her and going to the house was the only thing I could think of to help."

Lee took another sip of his coffee, and glanced up at Dottie. Her face was still and she was watching him very closely. He swallowed, and thought *She scares me more than a Russian interrogator* before glancing back down. "After we got engaged, we were both very happy, but both afraid to take the next step and actually get married because we didn't know how to make it work. You and the boys barely knew me, as far as you knew Amanda and I had only just started dating, and it would have been impossible at work. So we decided to get married in secret, let you and the boys get to know me better, and eventually come clean about it once we had figured everything out. In our business you never know when something bad could happen, and we didn't want to lose the chance to be together, even if only on a part-time basis as husband and wife."

Dottie topped off his cup of coffee, and took a long sip from hers. Lee glanced up at her, and saw her looking thoughtfully over his shoulder before looking him straight in the eyes, a bit of fear showing in hers. "That time that Amanda sent me and the boys to Vermont, she tried to tell me she was a government agent and there was a nuclear bomb in DC. I thought she was just making up a story to get us to leave, but she was telling the truth, wasn't she?" Lee maintained eye contact with Dottie as he nodded, and she paled slightly. He continued, "Amanda had information that we were able to use to find the bomb before it went off, and she helped me to defuse it and save the entire city. No one could ever know what she did, obviously we couldn't broadcast that a nuclear device had been activated in the capital. She was very brave, but making sure you and the boys were safe was just as important to her."

Lee leaned forward and placed one of his hands over Dottie's. "Dottie, Amanda absolutely hated lying to you and the boys all these years. She understood that keeping you in the dark about our work was for your own safety, but she had to have reasons for being gone so much or being late or missing family events and things. I remember when she missed Jamie's play, Rumpelstiltskin, she was so upset." Dottie didn't pull her hand away, but allowed him to rest his hand over hers while she took a deep breath. He continued before she could speak, "Keeping our relationship a secret from you was for the same reasons, we wanted to keep you and the boys safe from our work. Even though we probably should have known that it wasn't necessarily true that you would be safe. There were times you got mixed up with someone in trouble, and the time Joe brought home trouble that risked the boys' safety. There have been times where Amanda has gotten herself into trouble that had nothing to do with the Agency, but if wasn't for the Agency, she might not have gotten out of that trouble. Somehow we can make being a family and working at the Agency work out for everyone involved, there has to be a way to make it work, if we want it badly enough. And I want it so very badly, because I haven't really ever had a family of own." Lee frowned, thinking he probably had said too much.

"My daughter has been in danger a lot over the past 4 years, hasn't she Lee? There have been times when she might never have come home again and we would have never known why?" Her voice was cold and and a little bit distant. Lee swallowed hard and tightened his grip on her hand, "Yes, there is danger involved, but I've always done my best to protect Amanda when I could. There have been times when she has been the one to save me. That's what partners do is watch each others backs, and we always did that, even before we were married." Dottie continued, "And what would we have been told if she had.... died during one of these mysterious assignments of yours?" Lee looked away, "The usual cover story is a car accident if that's plausible," he answered softly, "unless it's known that the family knows the truth. There are married agents whose spouses aren't in the Agency, but obviously know their spouse works there. They would be told that they died in the line of duty, but no details for national security reasons."

Dottie sighed and said softly, "Will you please make sure that Amanda's file is changed to reflect that I know the truth about her work, so that I am told at least something resembling the truth if something happens to her in the future?" Lee nodded, "I promise, Dottie, if anything were to happen to her, you'll be told. I would promise to tell you myself, but if something were to happen to Amanda while we were working, chances are we would be killed together, because I would give up my life to save hers in an instant." Dottie met his eyes, and saw the sincerity in them, and knew that Lee meant every word. She bit her bottom lip, and reached for her coffee cup with the other hand. Lee still held on to her right hand tightly, and she didn't show any signs of trying to break free from his grip.

Dottie asked, "You said you didn't have any real family experience, what happened to your parents?" Lee closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again and looking down at the table. "My parents were both killed when I was five years old. I barely remember them anymore. I do have some pictures and letters and a diary to help me remember them. I went to live with my uncle who was career Air Force, and he treated raising me as a duty. We've never been especially close. I was an only child and my uncle is my only living relative. We moved around all the time, so I didn't get to stay in one place long enough to make really good friends. There have been times I've been jealous of the boys because they have such a wonderful relationship with their mother, and I never got that chance." Lee's voice broke at the end of his last sentence and he turned his face away from Dottie, trying to regain control. *I will not break down in front of Dottie, I will not break down in front of Dottie*

"Tell me about the baby, Lee." Lee leaned back in his chair, lifting his hand from Dottie's to run it through his hair. "Dottie, I had no idea about the baby until the doctor told me today. I've been on an assignment this past week, and he says she's not very far along. A couple of weeks ago when Joe took the boys camping and you were away with Captain Kurt, Amanda and I got to spend one of our rare weekends together as husband and wife at my apartment. I can only assume the child was conceived then." He swallowed again, the idea of being a father being so new, so overwhelming to him. He continued in a soft voice, "We hadn't really talked too much about having a child of our own, with our marriage being a secret we knew we'd have to come out in the open to you and the boys and the Agency before we started to try. To be honest, I don't think I knew how much I wanted one - until I found out she was pregnant. I don't even know if she knows about the baby yet. Has she been OK at home the past couple of weeks?" He looked up Dottie, the concern for his wife so evident in his voice and his eyes. Dottie nodded before taking another sip of her coffee. "She's been working hard, especially the past week. Probably to take her mind off of missing you or worrying about you, I'd guess. But now that I think about it, I did see her drinking ginger ale last weekend. I've only known her to drink ginger ale during two things - the flu and pregnancy. I just assumed she was sick, she was kind of worn out but working hard will do that too. I probably would have suspected she was pregnant sooner if I had known that was a possibility." Her voice gentled as she said this, and she whispered, "I hope it's a little girl, I would so much love to have a grand-daughter to spoil. Girls are so much easier than boys."

Lee reached out his hand again, slowly moving it back towards hers before resting his hand on hers and whispering back, "I'll take a boy or a girl, as long as its healthy and so is Amanda. I'll do my best to try and learn how to be a good father to him or her, just like I'm learning to be a good husband to Amanda, and just like I want to learn how to be a step-father to the boys and be a real member of this family." Dottie slowly nodded, and turned her hand over to grasp Lee's. "You love my daughter very much, don't you Lee?" Lee nodded and he felt her hand squeeze his back, "Then I'm entrusting her to your care. You keep her as safe as you can for me. It will take me a little time to get used to all of these changes. But I've been asking her when you two were going to get married for ages now, I can't be too angry that you did exactly what I wanted you to do, can I?" Dottie smiled for the first time, and Lee returned her smile. Dottie stood up, still holding on to Lee's hand, and Lee stood up as well. "Welcome to the family, Lee," and Dottie pulled him over the table into a tight embrace. Lee returned it tentatively at first, and then with more enthusiasm as he realized she didn't hate him and was going to accept him into this wonderful family. Amanda was going to be overjoyed that she wouldn't have to work so hard to keep everything about him and the Agency a secret from her mother anymore.

The two were still hugging when there was a knock at the door, and the nurse opened it. "Mr. Stetson, Mrs. West, Mrs. Stetson is starting to wake up." They pulled apart long enough to make eye contact and both started to smile, then turned to follow the nurse out the door and back towards Amanda's room, praying for all they were worth that this would be a sign that Amanda and the baby were going to be OK.


	9. Chapter 9

As Lee and Dottie made their way down the hallway back towards Amanda's room, Dottie stopped walking and laid a hand on Lee's arm. "Lee, I forgot to ask, how badly is Amanda hurt, and what exactly happened to her?" Lee stopped, and turned to face her, his face looking grim. "What happened is she was working in the vault and fell and hit the back of her head rather hard. She has a cracked skull, but the doctor didn't appear to think she had suffered a brain injury, nor any other injuries that he could tell. She accidentally got locked in the vault and was working here alone, so she spent the night in the vault." Dottie looked horrified and brought her hands up to cover her mouth. Lee continued, "When I called you this morning and she still hadn't come home, I got worried and came down to the office to check on her. I found her in the vault and got medical attention for her as soon as I could." Dottie nodded, "Well then, let's go see our girl." They continued walking down towards the door to Amanda's room. Just as they reached it, they could hear the doctor's voice coming from within the room. "Don't worry, Mrs. Stetson, your husband and mother are on their way right now. They've been waiting for you to wake up, and they'll be able to explain everything to you. The most important thing is not to move around too much, we need to let the injury to your head recover, and it's not good for someone in your condition to get too stressed." Lee and Dottie opened the door, just imagining the questions the doctor's innocent comments were probably generating in Amanda's head.

"Sweetheart, you're awake!" Dottie moved around to the opposite side of the bed. Amanda kept her head very still, but her eyes darted back and forth between her mother, Lee, and the Doctor. She still seemed a bit groggy as she whispered, "Mother...". Dottie took her left hand and held on to it. "Everything is going to be all right, Amanda, you just listen to the doctor and do whatever he tells you to do, OK?" "Yes, Mother. Lee, what are you doing here, I thought you were out on location until next week." Lee chuckled, *Leave it to Amanda to try and keep up a cover in her condition*. He pulled the stool back over and sat down, taking hold of Amanda's other hand. "It's OK, Amanda, you don't need to keep up the IFF cover for Dottie. She knows.. everything." Amanda's eyes widened and she glanced back towards her mother before looking back at Lee and frowning at him, "What exactly are you covering with 'everything'?" Lee smiled, "Well, she knows that we don't work for a film company, but are actually government agents." Amanda's eyes drifted closed and he continued, "And she knows that we are actually married and your name is Amanda Stetson now." Her eyes stayed closed, probably afraid to face the wrath of her mother, not knowing what her reaction to being kept in the dark about these things would be. Lee barged forward, "And she knows that we are going to become parents in about 8 more months." Amanda's eyes flew open in shock and her mouth made a small "O". "We're what?" Lee looked up at Dottie and said, "I think that answers the question of whether she knew she was pregnant or not." Amanda tightened her grip on both Lee and her mother's hands and whispered, "A baby? We're going to have a baby? Is it OK, it didn't get hurt when I fell?" Lee shook his head, "The doctor has checked you out and everything appears fine with the baby. We'll want to keep an extra close on eye on you for awhile now to make sure it stays that way. Can you remember what happened?" Amanda glanced at her mother, unable to read anything in her facial expression to having learned all of this news. "Well, I was moving boxes around in the vault. One was up on a shelf, and when I tried to move it, I lost my balance and fell off the step stool I was using. I tried to catch myself and I ended up triggering the door to the other vault room. I was stuck in there all night. I thought I'd be in there until Monday because you were gone, so I was rationing my water and the ration bars from the emergency kit. I knew I had hurt my head and tried to stay awake but I got too sleepy and fell asleep. Next thing I remember is the nurse poking at me and telling her to stop, and she ran to get the doctor." Lee stood up, and gave her a gentle kiss on the forehead, "That's about what we thought. I'm going to go call Billy and tell him that my wife has woken up." Amanda's jaw dropped open again and he nodded, "Yep, Billy knows about our marriage and the baby too. We'll have a lot to talk about when you get back on your feet. For now though, I think you and your mother need some time to talk." He left the room, waving back at them from the doorway. Amanda looked up at her mother's face, still unable to guage Dottie's reaction to all of this news.

Amanda wasn't sure where to start. Dottie let her off the hook by saying, "I had a nice chat with Lee while we were waiting for you to wake up. He explained to me that you had to keep your real profession a secret for national security and the safety of your family. I don't like it, but I can certainly understand it. I think it makes far more sense than some of the crazy cover stories you have used over the years." Amanda teared up, "I'm sorry, Mother. You can't know how hard it was to lie to you about this." Dottie nodded, "I can imagine, because I know you are a very honest person by nature, Amanda. But what I don't understand is why you couldn't tell me the truth about your relationship with Lee. Do you know how silly I feel now having hinted and hinted that you two should get married, just to find out you actually did it behind my back without telling me?" The tears leaked out the side of Amanda's eyes, "I know, Mother, and I'm so sorry about that. We just couldn't figure out a way to not make it seem too sudden for you and the boys. Lee and I had been involved for a lot longer than you knew, and we thought it would look strange to you if we seemed to be rushing into things. Even though we weren't really rushing." Dottie patted her hand, "Well, I know Phillip and Jamie both like Lee a great deal, and it will be nice for them to have a man around more often. Joe does his best, I know, but they're getting to that age where a full-time father figure would be good. I think once you're back on your feet, you should tell the boys right away that you're getting married, and we'll have a little ceremony in the backyard, in the gazebo, so we can have a public wedding. Then Lee can move in and be part of the family like he should and I'll, well, I'll start looking for an apartment." Amanda looked horrified, "Oh no, Mother, you can't leave, we still need you here. The boys need you, and with our work, having you there will be such a relief to us. And Mother, Lee hasn't ever really had a mother in his life, his mother died when he was very young and he only barely remembers her at all. We want you to stay with us, please, Mother, don't break up our family." Dottie patted her hand, and felt herself tearing up. It had been a secret fear of hers that someday Amanda would marry and she'd be out on her own again because she wouldn't be needed. She had grown to love living with her daughter and the boys, as chaotic as it could be, it felt so good to have her grandchildren close by and seeing them day after day. So many of her friends had watched their children move away and rarely if ever got to see their grandchildren. Soon there would be another one to love too. Dottie nodded, "Of course I'll stay, Amanda, I'll be happy to stay. Besides, you'll want my help when this new one makes itself at home, right?" She laid her hand on Amanda's abdomen, and Amanda rested her other hand on top of hers. "Mother, a baby, I can't believe it! How did I not realize?" Dottie shook her head, "You've been working really hard lately, especially this past week. Remember last weekend when you weren't feeling well and drank a ginger ale? That should have been your first clue." Amanda closed her eyes, and whispered, "I didn't even think of it, I assumed I was coming down with the flu, because we weren't trying to have a baby at all, Mother. It's like a miracle." Dottie leaned down and kissed her daughter on the forehead, "Yes, and having you both safe and sound is a miracle too."

Lee and the doctor came back into the room. "Mrs. Stetson, everything is looking just fine for you and Baby Stetson. I think we want to keep you here for at least a week to keep an eye on your head injury and watch for any signs of bleeding. If everything looks good after that, you can go home, but you'll be restricted to office duty only during your pregnancy." Lee nodded, "Billy has already changed your work status to take you out of the field, and once you're all better, we'll set up a meeting with Dr. Smyth and work something out. Don't you worry, it's not good for you or the baby." Amanda smiled and looked up lovingly at her husband, "We're going to have a baby, Lee, a baby!" Lee stepped forward and kissed his wife gently. When he rose back up, she could see the tears held in his eyes and the joy in them at the thought of their own baby. The doctor spoke, "Now, I know she just woke up, but sleep is what Mrs. Stetson and Baby Stetson needs right now the most. I think you two can go, just leave numbers where we can reach you with the nurse, and visiting hours will start at 8 am tomorrow morning." Lee and Dottie both kissed Amanda goodbye, and headed out the door. Billy had made his way down to the lobby, and shook Lee's hand. "I'm glad everything appears to be OK with Amanda, Lee. Don't you worry about Dr. Smyth, I'll get everything worked out. In the meantime, I can't wait to see the look on Francine's face when I tell her this news!" Dottie appeared confused and Lee said, "She's one of our co-workers." Billy nodded, "Scarecrow, I think you deserve a week off after everything that's happened, why don't you spend it with your family?" Lee glanced over at Dottie who nodded, "That sounds like an excellent idea. Why don't you drive me back to the house, and you can stay for dinner. Once Amanda is free to come home, then we'll all sit down with the boys and explain to them your change in status from boyfriend to step-father and make the arrangements for a public wedding and getting you moved in to your home where you belong." Lee stood there flabbergasted at the acceptance Dottie was offering him. "Are... are you sure the boys will be OK with that?" She nodded, "They'll need to adjust before their baby brother or sister comes home, right?" Lee grinned at her, "Definitely. Are you sure you're OK with that?" Dottie laughed, "Lee, I've been nagging Amanda for ages about when were you going to get around to proposing to her. I can't be upset when you've done exact what I wanted to you to do. I just wish I had been there to see it the first time around." Lee nodded, "I'll show you our wedding photo when we get back to the house, I know where Amanda has hers hidden in her room. OK, let's head home. See you later, Billy."

Lee escorted his mother-in-law back out to the parking garage and his car, and prepared to take her back home. As he helped her into the passenger seat, he leaned down and said, "Dottie, thank you so much for being so understanding. I know it can't be easy to have all of this dropped on you so suddenly and all." Dottie shook her head, "I'm confused and surprised and yes, a little scared. But the important thing is I love my daughter and she loves you, and that's good enough for me." Lee grinned and moved around to the driver's side. "Well, the feeling is more than mutual, and I love you and the boys too." He paused, and glanced over at her, "I know you don't know me all that well yet, but I've been around your lives for 4 years now and I feel like I know you already." Dottie laughed, "Well, we'll just have to make up for lost time then. I expect I'll be seeing a lot more of your argyle socks coming through the laundry in the meantime. So, what are some of your favorite foods so I'll know what to add to the menu around the house?" The two chatted about recipes and foods all the way back to the house in Arlington.


	10. Chapter 10

Lee pulled his car into the driveway of Amanda's house. Even though they had been openly dating for awhile now, it still felt strange to park the car openly in the driveway. Dottie reached over and laid a hand on his arm. "Lee, I told Amanda that we should have a small public wedding, rather than telling everyone that you've been married, this would be easier to handle. I think you should talk to the boys about becoming their stepfather instead of just their mother's boyfriend." Lee stiffened in his seat. He loved the boys, that's for sure, but it was still sometimes awkward to talk to them, especially when Amanda wasn't around to guide him. She patted his arm, "You'll know what you need to say, don't worry. I'll relieve Mrs. Anderson, and then tell the boys that their mother will be OK, and then I'm going up to my room to lie down for awhile. You can stay with the boys and we'll have dinner tonight, the four of us." Lee nodded, and got out and went around the car to open the door for Dottie. Phillip and Jamie came flying out the door to meet them, "Grandma, is Mom OK? Will she be home soon?" Dottie waved her arms and then wrapped an arm around each boy. Lee took off his jacket, and went back around to the driver's side of the car and put it on the seat. "Calm down boys! I'll tell you everything you need to know, let's let Mrs. Anderson go home and then we'll sit and talk, OK?" Phillip and Jamie both glanced back at Lee a couple of times as they made their way back up the front sidewalk.

As they walked in the house, a woman about Dottie's age was grabbing her purse, "Mrs. Anderson, thank you so much for coming over and staying with the boys on such short notice." The woman waved her off, "It's not a problem at all, Dottie dear, I'm glad to help. I hope Amanda will be all right?" Dottie nodded, "Just a little fall at work, she'll be back on her feet again in no time!" Mrs. Anderson smiled and nodded at Lee before walking out the front door, glancing back to give him a look over from behind. Dottie asked Lee to close the door and sighed, "Biggest gossip in the neighborhood; everyone will know Amanda's OK and that you have a nice butt by the end the day." Lee blushed and the boys laughed, and Dottie pushed them towards the living room. She sat down in the middle of the sofa with one boy on either side of her, and Lee sat in one of the side chairs.

"Now boys, the first thing you need to know is your mother is going to be OK, she just had a nasty fall at work. Unfortunately, she was working alone last night when she fell, and she couldn't call for help. No one found her until this morning. When Lee called this morning looking for her and found she wasn't here, he went to the office to check on her and found her and got her to a doctor." Phillip and Jamie both turned to look at Lee. Lee nodded, "She took a pretty good bump to the head, but no sign of amnesia or anything like that. They want to keep her for a week or so to monitor her situation since she wasn't treated right away, but she should be just fine." Phillip asked, "When can we go visit her at the hospital?" Dottie and Lee exchanged a glance and Lee said, "Well, right now she's resting. I'll check with the doctor's later today and see when she might be up to more visitors. If she's not, we can talk to her on the phone though, I'm sure she'd love that." Dottie hugged the boys to her. "Now, I've had a very exciting morning, so I'm to go upstairs and lay down for awhile. You boys can talk with Lee in the meantime, and we'll have a late lunch this afternoon, OK?" The boys nodded, now looking warily towards Lee. They gave their grandmother a hug and she patted Lee on the shoulder as she walked by and headed upstairs. For a long moment, the three just stared at each other. Lee thought to himself, *I can't believe the gammut I've run today - having to tell Billy about me and Amanda, having to tell Dottie about Billy and me and Amanda, and then having to tell Amanda about the baby, now I have to tell the boys about me and Amanda, but with a twist!* He cleared his throat, "Boys, I asked Dottie to let me talk to you because I've been doing a lot of thinking this past week, about you and your mother."

The boys both looked curious, but didn't say anything. He clenched his hands in front of him and leaned forward to rest his arms on his knees. "I was out of town on an assignment this past week, and couldn't get to a phone. I missed your mother an awful lot, I'm used to seeing her every day at work, and I enjoy the evenings we've spent together here watching movies and eating popcorn. I missed it more than I expected to. I hope you know that I care about your mother very, very much." He looked up at the boys, Phillip nodded slowly and Jamie just looked worried. Lee looked down and swallowed, "Well, finding your mother hurt this morning made me realize just how much I really do care about her, and that I don't want to miss another moment of time with her and with you boys and your grandmother. When your mother is recovered from her injury," he took a deep breath and looked up to meet the boys' eyes, "I would like your persmission to ask her to marry me." The boys both looked surprised. Phillip was quicker to recover, "You want to marry Mom?" Lee nodded, "I love her so much, the events of this past week just made me realize how important she was to me and how much I want her in my life every day. I know it would mean a lot of changes for all of us, compromises and adjustments. But just as I love your mother, I care about you two as well. I know you already have a father in Joe, but I'm hoping maybe you'd let me learn how to be a step-father to you, and that we could be friends." Jamie looked apprehensive; he was the sensitive one of the two. He said softly, "Are you and Mom going to send us to live with Dad?" Lee looked shocked, "No, Jamie, of course not, I want to be included as part of your family, not break it up. I'm hoping if there is room, I could move in here with you guys. If there isn't enough room, we could all go shopping for a new house together." Both Phillip and Jamie perked up a bit at this news, Phillip jumping in with, "Could we each have our own room?" Lee smiled, "That could probably be put on the list of things to look for. So, do I have your permission to ask her?" Phillip and Jamie look at each other and then, turning to Lee, nodded together. Lee grinned and opened up his arms. The two boys tumbled across the sofa and into a bear hug. Lee couldn't help a couple of tears coming out at how tightly they embraced him. It was the closest to being accepted by the boys he had ever felt. As they pulled back, he ran an arm across his face. "How about we go get some ice cream to celebrate, and you can help me plan how to ask your mother the big question, OK?" The boys yelled, "Yeah!" and headed to the front door. Lee left Dottie a note, and found the boys arguing over who got to ride shotgun. Lee gave a loud whistle and they both went silent. "Phillip rides shotgun on the way to the ice cream shop, and Jamie rides shotgun on the way home. Deal?" The boys nodded, and Phillip held the front seat open so Jamie could crawl into the almost non-existant back seat of the Vette.

As Lee climbed in and made sure everyone had their seat belts on his thought, *I'm not giving up my Vette, but I'm going to need a more family friendly car* He said, "I'm going to call someone at work to bring your mother's car back home for her while I'm thinking about it." He picked up the car phone and hit the auto-dial button that went directly to Billy's office. When Billy answered, Lee answered happily, "Hi, this is Lee. I just wanted to let you know that I got Mrs. West home safe and sound, and am taking the boys out for ice cream. Do you think you could get someone from the motor pool to take Amanda's car home? The Vette is a little cramped for 3 and we'd never get Mrs. West into the back seat." Both boys started giggling at the image of trying to get their grandmother into the back seat. Billy said, "Sure thing, Scarecrow, we'll have it back in an hour or so. I'll tell them to leave the keys under the welcome mat for you." Lee stopped at a stop light and smiled, "Great, thanks a lot for the help! Talk to you later." and hung up the phone. He turned to Phillip, "Your mother's car should be back when we get back, so we can use that so no one has to squeeze into the back seat again." It wasn't a long drive to the ice cream shop, and they went inside and each ordered bowls of their favorite flavors. Lee got vanilla, Phillip got chocolate, and Jamie got strawberry. As they sat around the small table, Jamie asked the first question, "So are you going to take her someplace romantic to ask her to marry you?" Lee put a thoughtful expression on his face and took a bite of ice cream as he appeared deep in thought. "Actually, I thought maybe I'd ask her in the gazebo in your back yard. That's a very pretty place, and your mother and I have spent a lot of time talking there in the past." Phillip piped in, "You know, you could even get married in there, we could add lanterns and flowers and stuff and make it as nice as a church." Lee grinned, knowing Dottie had probably thought exactly something like that. "That is a great idea, Phillip! I think we should plan a special dinner for the night your mother comes home from the hospital, and after dinner, I'll ask her to marry me then." Jamie inserted, "Maybe you could hide the ring in her desert or something!" and Phillip said, "That's a stupid idea, wormbrain, what if she ate the ring by accident?" Lee automatically said, "Phillip don't call your brother a wormbrain." using almost exactly Amanda's tone of voice. Phillip and Jamie looked at him a little surprised and he said, "What?" Phillip grinned, "You sounded a lot like Mom just then, maybe you won't need much training at being a stepfather after all."

Lee grinned, "I was hoping for the wedding, you would be our photographer, Jamie." Jamie's eyes widened behind his glasses, "Me?" Lee nodded, "I know you've been practicing a lot with your new camera, and we can take lots of practice shots out in the backyard and with the gazebo so you can plan out your shots." Jamie sat up straighter in his seat, "I'd be honored, Lee." Phillip clamoured, "What about me, what job will I get for the wedding?" Lee looked thoughtfully at him before saying slowly, "Actually, I think we'll need your mother's input on that, but I was thinking perhaps you and Jamie could walk her down the aisle and give her away?" Phillip and Jamie grinned at each other and Lee smiled as he thought to himself, *I hope I'm not getting myself in trouble with Amanda OR Dottie by planning all of this with the boys!* He nodded, "I have a friend that I met through work who I'd like to be my best man, and I'm not sure who your mother would pick to stand with her, but we just have to hope she says yes first!" He laughed nervously, and the boys laughed too, "Oh don't worry, Lee, she'll say yes, I'm sure of it." Phillip nodded after making this statement. Lee looked at him surprised, "Why do you say that?" Phillip continued, "Because I've seen how funny she's acted all week this week. You said you were out of town on an assignment? Well, every night after dinner she would take forever doing the dishes, and I lost track of the number of times she stood there just staring out the kitchen window. It's like she was hoping you'd pop out of the bushes or something." Lee smiled, and took another bite of his ice cream to stop himself from laughing. He could just picture Amanda standing at the window hoping he'd come back early from this assignment. How many times had he popped up in that window and scared her over the past few years? They continued to talk until they had finished up their ice cream, so they washed up and then headed back to the Vette where Phillip climbed into the back seat and Jamie sat up front for the ride home.

As expected, the station wagon was parked in the driveway, so Lee parked in the street in front of the house. As they boys climbed out of the car, Lee went up and lifted the welcome mat and found Amanda's key ring resting there with a note. It read, "Her purse is locked in the car under a blanket." He unlocked the door to the house using Amanda's key and then went to the car, unlocked it, and retrieved her purse. Dottie was sitting down in the kitchen drinking a cup of tea and reading the paper and the boys were telling her that Lee was going to marry Mom, and they would have the wedding the backyard in the gazebo and Jamie would be the photographer and they were going to give Mom away and Lee would move in and they could ride in the Vette a lot. Lee laughed, leaning against the doorjamb of the entry way, watching Dottie's face as she enjoyed the excitement of her grandchildren. She glanced up and him and winked; apparently he had done better than expected. He moved over to the phone, "Let's see if your mother is awake enough to talk to you guys on the phone. Remember though, not a word about the proposal, it's our secret." They nodded, and he dialed the number for the Agency infirmary. "Amanda King's room please." The nurse on the other end said, "Did you mean Mrs. Stetson?" Lee sighed, "Yes, please." This was going to be awkward, maybe they could move her to a regular hospital for the rest of the time she needed to be supervised. Then Amanda's voice came on the line, "Hello?" Lee grinned, "Hi Amanda, it's Lee. I'm here at the house with your mother and the boys and they boys would really like to talk to you if you're up to it." Amanda's voice brightened, "Oh yes please, put them on." He handed the phone to Phillip, as the oldest. He moved around and laid a hand on Jamie's shoulder, "You're next, Chief." Jamie nodded, and looked up at Lee. "Mom is going to be all right, Lee, isn't she?" Lee nodded, "Just fine, Jamie." Phillip rattled on about a basketball game at the park the other day and that Lee had taken him and Jamie out for ice cream while Grandma rested. Jamie pouted, "I was going to tell her about that." Lee patted his shoulder, "You can tell her too, Chief." Lee stepped forward, "OK, Jamie's turn." Phillip turned serious, "I love you, Mom, take care of yourself, OK?" He paused and then handed the phone to Jamie. "Mom? You're coming home soon, right?" He listened to her on the other end, and his serious look changed to a small smile. "Yeah, we got to ride in Lee's car, and he made us take turns riding shotgun. Our car is back home now though, so we don't have to climb into that little back seat again." He laughed and listened to his mother, "Sure Mom, I'll put Lee back on the phone. You rest up so you can come home sooner, OK? I love you." He listened to his mother and then handed the phone to Lee. Phillip had gone over and gotten a hug from his grandmother and Jamie now joined him. Lee took back the phone, "How are you feeling? Anything new from the doctor?" Amanda sighed, "I feel fine, just a bit of a headache and really tired. I had just woken up a few minutes before you called. Everything seems to be OK with the baby, they recommended I go see my personal doctor as soon as I'm released. I already spoke to the doctor about transferring to a regular hospital once he felt it was safe to move me, so the boys can come visit without compromising the Agency." He smiled, "Great idea, I'm sure the boys can't wait to come visit you, you just let us know when you're up for it." Amanda replied, "He said a day or two. I hope you'll be able to come visit me here though." Lee nodded, "You bet I will. I'm going to have dinner here with Dottie and the boys, and I'll come see you tomorrow morning, OK?" Amanda said, "That'd be great, big guy. Take good care of our family for me while I'm gone, will you?" Lee felt himself choke up a bit when she called them 'our family'. "Of course! I love you, Amanda." Amanda sighed happily, "I love you, too. See you tomorrow." They hung up, and Lee turned around to find himself being hugged by both of the boys. He looked up at Dottie, who had a tear in her eye. "Well, let's see what great dinner we can whip up for the four of us. Maybe after we eat we can watch a movie or something before Lee goes home?"

After looking through the kitchen, they decided to fire up the grill and make hamburgers. Lee focused on getting the grill ready, remembering another dinner of hamburgers and wine that never happened, while Dottie took care of the hamburger patties, and the boys were in charge of preparing a salad. They finished their job quickly, and headed up to their room to play video games until it was time to eat. This gave Dottie and Lee a chance to talk about his talk with the boys. Dottie said, "You handled that wonderfully. I think it's a great idea that you asked their permission first, and included them in the wedding. I'm sure Amanda will agree." He nodded, "I'll bring her up to speed on everything tomorrow when I see her. I think I'd like Billy to be my best man, so we'll have to figure out a cover story for how I know him. I think it's best if the boys don't know about the Agency until they were a little bit older, and I'm pretty sure Amanda would agree." Dottie nodded, "We'll work out a story together; we've got a week until the proposal." He smiled, the idea of finally being able to live as husband and wife with Amanda and her family, and welcoming a baby of their own into the world, made him happier than he ever thought he could feel. Dottie then asked, "Remember you said that Amanda had a copy of your wedding photo hidden in her room? Where is it?" He glanced around to make sure the boys weren't around, and answered softly, "Unless she's moved it, it's underneath the drawer in her nightstand. Just pull the drawer out almost all the way, and it should fall out." Dottie nodded. After a great dinner, they settled down to watch a monster movie. Dottie rolled her eyes and went upstairs to read one of her romance novels instead. Before heading into her room, she slipped into Amanda's room, closed and locked the door, and sat down on the bed. Following Lee's instruction, she slowly pulled open the dresser drawer, keeping a hand underneath of it until she felt the photo in a thin frame begin to fall. She worked it out the rest of the way, and pulled it onto her lap, turning it over. She gasped, Lee and Amanda looked so beautiful. He was wearing a dark suit and she was wearing an ivory white skirt and jacket. She felt herself tear up, sad that she missed such a special event, but so happy that Amanda and Lee had found happiness with each other. Soon enough, they'd be able to share that with the rest of the family. She very carefully put the photograph back in its hiding place, and then headed for her room and her book. Halfway through the movie, Lee popped some popcorn and the three shared the snack while they watched the end of the movie. The sun was just beginning to set when Lee said, "Well fellas, it's been a really long day for me, I need to get home and get some sleep. I'll talk to you later, OK?" The boys nodded, and each gave him a big hug at the door when he left. As he drove back home, his mood was as light as he could remember it.

As he entered his apartment, he threw his jacket over the back of the sofa. He had taken it off when he arrived at Amanda's house and had just left it sitting in the front seat all day. When it hit the back of the sofa, a piece of paper fell out of the pocket. *Amanda's notes* He had totally forgotten about them! He quickly checked his other pocket and found the other 3 still tucked safely inside. It was the note Amanda had written to him that had fallen out. He turned out the lights and moved into the bedroom, turning on the beside lamp. Sitting on the bed, he sat staring at the folded and now slightly crumpled piece of paper with his name "Lee" written in Amanda's shaky hand. He wanted to read it so badly, yet he didn't want to intrude on Amanda's thoughts. She had intended him only to read this if she had died. But his curiousity got the better of him. Taking a deep breath, he carefully loosened the band aid holding the two pieces of paper together. Taking a deep breath, he began to read, "_My dearest Lee,_" and stopped. He set the papers aside, and went back out into the other room to get himself a glass of scotch. Bringing it back into the bedroom, he set it on the end table and prepared for bed. Walking over to the dresser, he opened up the top drawer and removed two items: his copy of their wedding picture and the box that held their wedding rings and Amanda's engagement ring. He set the photograph on the end table next to the glass of scotch and slipped on his wedding band before he climbed under the covers. He took a sip of the scotch before picking the papers back up and preparing to read what could have been the last words of his beloved wife.


	11. Chapter 11

_"My dearest Lee,_

_Remember how I said on Monday that the worst thing that could happen to me while filing was a bad paper cut? Well, I did that, and then topped even my worst filing nightmare. Would you believe I managed to get myself locked inside of the cold storage vault, giving myself a nasty bump on the head in the meantime, and it happened late on a Friday afternoon and you aren't expected back in town until Monday? Did you know there isn't a latch on the other side of the door in here? Or at least I haven't been able to find one, and if you told me about one, I don't remember it. I had to practice to get the door opened from the outside before my filing project arrived! Anyway, every time I've gotten myself in a bad fix, I've always known that you were going to come rescue me. Either that, or we've been in the bad fix together, and I've always had faith that we could work our way out of any jamb together. This time though I think I've really done it. My head is hurting really bad, I probably have at least a major concussion if not something worse. I was lucky enough to have the emergency kit in here when I had the accident, so I have the ration bars and some water to get me by. But I'm really starting to worry about my head. I'm finding myself dozing off, and I know people with a head injury are supposed to stay away or be checked on regularly. That's not going to happen while I'm alone in here. I'm scared, Lee, that I really did hurt my head, and won't be able to hang on until Monday for you to save me. Mother won't think anything of me not coming home, we've dashed off without giving her any notice before, I think we've trained her not to worry about me by now. Oh my gosh, I'm really scared this time. It reminds me of the night we were stuck in the swamp, do you remember? I was so scared, but at least we were together, that helped a lot. On my own, I'm not nearly as confident._

_I just woke up a few moments ago and realized that I had passed out. I think there is a chance I won't make it till Monday, although I'm going to do my best! But just in case, there are things I need to say to you, and to Mother and the boys. I'm writing them notes too, so if I don't make it, please make sure they get their notes and stay close to them. They'll need you, and you'll need them to get through this. I'm telling Mother the truth about our relationship in her letter, otherwise you'll be left all alone to deal with the loss, and I can't stand the thought of that. I don't want you to go back to being the Scarecrow, the man without a heart, the man who handed me a package at the train station. You've changed so such over the years, I much prefer the Lee Stetson that I came to know, and to love. If I don't make it, I want you to be able to mourn me with my family, together the four of you will be able to get through this. Mother hints all the time that she thinks we're a good couple and wondering why you weren't proposing to me. I know this isn't the best way for her to find out the truth, but you'll be there to comfort her, and she'll be there to comfort you. You can be like the son she never had, and I know she'd love to be a mother to you too. The two of you can help each other, and both of you can help the boys._

_Now, I don't want you to start blaming yourself for this like you did in the swamp. No guts, no glory, I'm an adult and I'm exactly where I want to be in my life. Well, not really, I'd much prefer to be on the other side of this vault door and with you. Actually, my only regret is that we never got to be together as husband and wife for all the world to see, and Mother and the boys never got to know you as part of the family. If I do manage to get out of here somehow, we're going to fix that first thing! Hopefully they'll let us keep working together in the field, but if they don't, I'll man the Q Bureau office while you handle the field, or whatever it takes to make it work. Family is the most important thing there is, and while I know the work we do makes the world a safer place for our family, what good is that if we can't be together as a family like we want to be? I think we let our fears get the better of us yet again - just like after we got engaged and we drug our feet at getting married."_

There was a squiggly line drawn across the page at this point. Lee frowned, not sure what that meant, and looked up at the ceiling letting Amanda's words roll over him like a soothing balm. Just like his Amanda to be more worried about those she'd leave behind if she died than herself. Not wanting him to blame himself for her death, and wanting to make sure he mourned her properly with her family. God, what a woman she was! He took a deep breath and started reading the next section of text under the wavy line.

_"Sorry, I had to take a break from writing to you for a bit there. I wanted to make sure I got Mother's letter and the letters for the boys written before my head got any worse. It's getting kind of fuzzy and hard to focus my attention and I wouldn't want to ramble on and on in their letters and forget to say the important things I want to say. Boy, I'm really lucky that I left the pen and notepad here in the cold storage part of the vault so I have the ability to write these letters to you all. One of the things I have always regretted was I never got a chance to say a proper goodbye to my father when he died, nor did he get a chance to say a proper goodbye to me. You all won't get your chance, but I'm going to make sure I get mine. You know, I wonder now why we stuck to keeping our marriage a secret after I almost died on our honeymoon. I mean, why is this near-death experience changing my mind when that one didn't? I guess it's because I'm conscious for this one, although I'm glad I was unconscious for that one because it hurt a lot. We never even really talked about changing our plans for a secret marriage, did we? The experience with Khai just reinforced the reasons we wanted to keep it a secret. I hope Mr. Melrose isn't going to be mad at us for keeping it a secret. Oh I wish I could see Francine's face when she hears about it! I think she probably already knows, I mean she's walked in on us so many times in the Q Bureau. Why can't we remember to keep that darn door locked more often, I mean, my gosh, after the first time you'd think we'd have learned our lesson!_

_Anyway, my head is really throbbing and the aspirin isn't helping too much, so I'd better make sure I write what I want to write before I can't write any more. I hope you can read my handwriting OK, I'm writing by the light of the flashlight and using the box of my emergency kit as a desk and it's not the most stable thing in the world, and neither is my head. Hey, that reminds me, I was right about keeping an emergency kit in the office, you owe me dinner or something. Darn, I hope I get a chance to collect on that. It's so fun when I'm right and you're wrong, you get this cute little pouting facial expression like a little five-year old. It reminds me of the boys when they were little. I guess that's probably from being an only child and the way you were raised. At least you can accept being wrong better than you used to, do you remember when I'd figure something out, you'd stand there and just stare at me like I grew a second head or something. It took you a long time to realize I am a very bright, intelligent, and logical woman! Yes, I can be a bit of a clutz at times and I do make mistakes, but then so does everybody. I just seem to make bigger ones than the average person, huh? Yet you love me anyway!"_

Another wavy line crossed the page.

_"I think I must have taken another little nap; not sure how long I was out that time. My head does feel a little bit better though. I was dreaming about some of our past adventures, all the times you've had to rescue me, and sometimes I've had to rescue you too! I keep hoping that maybe you'll finish the assignment early, or Mr. Melrose or Francine will come up to check on my progress on the filing project or something and I'll be found earlier than Monday. I sure hope you don't have to stay longer than the week Mr. Melrose said you'd gone, or I'm definitely going to be in trouble! Don't wait until the last minute to come to the rescue, like you did when you saved me and Francine from the freezer, OK? Or when you defused that bomb with just a second to spare, no need to wait till the last minute here! Ouch, I shouldn't laugh, that makes my head hurt again._

_You know, I'm so glad we were able to get past our fears and admit that we loved each other. I know emotional displays are still hard for you. I remember when I thought you were dead and you came back to life in my living room, I said you were more afraid of tears than bullets. I still think that's probably true. If I die, don't be afraid to cry for me, please? That's how you show how much you loved me. I'll be watching over you, I'd be a great Guardian Angel, don't you think? Just watching your back like a good partner always does, no need to stop just because I did something silly like dying in a stupid accident in the office. Oh, that's not to say you're a bad partner because this happened, you weren't even here to prevent it, so don't think I'm saying that at all! You're a great partner, not just at work, but in my life. I love dancing with you, and watching silly movies on TV with you eating popcorn, and just spending time together. We were such good friends before we realized our true feelings for each other, I think that's one of the best things about our relationship is we're not just husband and wife, we're really best friends too. Oh, but that's a bad thing too because you won't have your best friend to help you get through this, will you? Debbie Ann and I were always there for each other when we were kids, I even let her hide when she ran away, did I ever tell you that story? Yeah, I think I did at some point probably. I've told you a lot of stories, do you know why I did that? Well, two reasons, one was so that you could get to know me better, but the other reason was I always hoped you'd start to tell me some of your stories so I could get to know you better. There is still a lot about you that I don't know, but once you started opening up to me, I got to see the real you that was underneath the Scarecrow persona you projected to the rest of the world. I really love the real Lee Stetson a lot, he's a good man with a kind heart. He was a really good husband, even if we were only together for a few months, and even then we couldn't really be together like we wanted to be."_

Lee turned to the second piece of paper, a little worried that she was starting to refer to him in the third person like that. It was like she had forgotten she was writing a letter to him, but writing about him instead. Probably a result of the head injury, but the next section of text really got his attention.

_"You know, Lee and I never talked about having more kids. We focused on protecting Phillip and Jamie, but I can't remember ever talking to him about having a child of our own together. I sure would like that, Lee is showing such good instincts with the boys, I think he'd make a terrific father starting at the beginning. If we did have a baby, I'd want to name it after his parents, either Matthew or Jennifer depending on if we had a boy or a girl. I was thinking about that last week because I had a touch of the flu and had to drink a ginger ale. Now, I really hate ginger ale, except when I have the flu or when I've been pregnant. As I was drinking it, I did let myself wonder what it would be like to carry Lee's child. It would certainly make it impossible to keep our marriage a secret! Maybe if I can't convince him that we need to do that, I should try to get pregnant! No, that would be sneaky of me, maybe Lee doesn't want any more kids! We need to talk about that when he gets home from this assignment. I'm not getting any younger, so if we are going to have kids we should start trying right away. I've been those few pictures Lee has of himself as a little kid, and I bet Lee's child would be just as precious. It would be a real symbol of our love for each other. It would mean a lot of changes, I'd probably come out of the field, and Lee might even think about taking a desk job. I know Mr. Melrose is grooming Francine for his replacement but there are other office jobs he could do. I could work in training new agents, I'd be a good teacher I think, as long as I don't have to deal with Station One! That was so embarrassing, of course I was trying to complete against much younger potential agents and I am not the most athletic of people. I have had two babies you know, that takes a toll on you! But keeping up with two kids keeps you pretty fit too. Hey, maybe we could have a Station Day Care for agents with kids, and make the agents try to handle kids for awhile. Wouldn't that be a funny thing? I'm sure Lee has found some of the things I do for the boys to be silly, all the bake sales and baseball games and school projects and things. Oh, I remember when that darn project of Czechoslo-whatika got me in trouble because they thought I was a double agent and they had Lee investigating me? How crazy is that, I was barely a real agent and they thought I was smart enough to be a double agent? Hey, actually I think that's kind of a sideways kind of compliment, isn't it?_

_I think I've learned to be a good agent over the years, Lee has taught me a lot. I know at first he thought I was just a bother and didn't want to work with me, or get me any training, but Mr. Melrose had confidence in me. I think he also thought I was a good influence on Lee during those first couple of years. I remember when I almost quit, had even turned in my resignation, and Lee got it off of Mr. Melrose's desk and he accepted me as a partner. What if he hadn't done that? If we had gone our separate ways, I wouldn't be stuck in this darn vault, but I would have missed out on falling in love with Lee and our marriage. Oh, it was so worth it. Lee, no matter what happens to me, no matter how bad things get, getting to be with you and be your wife is worth whatever cost I have to pay. I love you with all of my heart and soul, and hope I've done a good job of showing you that over the years. Even when I wasn't ready to admit how I felt to myself, more or less to you, I think I let it show. Like when we had to pretend to be engaged and go through that wedding ceremony. Part of me wanted that to be real so badly! Every time we had to take a case where we pretended to be married, I was so nervous about it, but excited at the same time. I think I probably had a little crush on you, you were so different from Dean, and made my life so much more exciting! Dangerous, yes, but exciting too! Do you remember our first dance at that costume party where I was so underdressed? I used to daydream about that a lot because it felt so nice and safe in your arms, even though you were a complete stranger! I'd never had adventures like that in my life, and I did like it. I also tried to be a good friend to you, like when you had to deal with Dorothy's death from so many years ago. I think I always knew that we were meant to meet on that train station platform, and our lives were meant to intertwine like they did. It doesn't seem fair at all to have our time together cut so short though. Oh well, if you want fair, wait till August, right?_

_The important thing is we made the most of the time we did have together, and loved each other to the best of our ability. I think we did a good job of that, given the circumstances. I know I felt your love every day in so many little ways, whether it was little gifts on my desk, or just feeling your hand on my back as we'd walk down the hallways at the Agency, or dancing at an embassy event. I hope I did a good job showing you how much I loved you. My only regret is that our friends and families didn't know how much we loved each other. That would be the only thing in my life I'd change. Well, that and I wouldn't have gotten myself stuck in this darn vault! Ouch, made myself laugh again, not a good idea. I'm feeling really tired again, I think I'd better finish this up just in case. You know, I'm going to sit here and think about you, and pray. Maybe I can make you feel that I need you and you'll come home early, maybe God will make it happen. I'm not ready to leave you yet, there is so much more I want to do with my life, with my family, and with you._

_If I don't make it, know that my last thoughts will be of you and my family, and if I can, I'll watch over you from the other side. I love you all so much, and you've all made my life such a blessing._

_If I do make it, and you are reading this letter,"_

Lee stopped reading *Oh oh.* before starting again.

_"If I do make it, and you are reading this letter anyway, put it in the box with our wedding rings to always remind you how very much your wife loves you, and destroy the other three letters that I wrote. Knowing you like I do, you won't be able to resist reading this letter, and after all the work I put into it despite my sore head, maybe this will be what it takes for us to make this marriage public._

_All of my love forever and ever,  
Your Amanda._

_P.S. What DO you think about having kids, and why hasn't the subject every managed to come up all this time? Doesn't that seem strange to you? Well, strange is pretty normal for us, since we don't do normal, but still...."_

Lee chuckled, and refolded the letter, setting it on the nightstand. He would put it in the wedding ring box in the morning, and burn the other three letters before heading to the Agency infirmary to visit his beloved wife. He couldn't wait to till her about his talk with the boys and their acceptance of the idea of him proposing to her. Then they could become a real family and when the baby came...

Lee sat up in bed with a start. The Baby. He had completely forgotten that Amanda was pregnant! Even if they got married right away, the boys weren't stupid and Jamie for sure would be able to figure out that the baby was conceived before what they think is their wedding night. Lee flopped back down on the bed with a whoomph, and reached over to shut out the light. Just when he thought his terrible, horrible day couldn't get any worse, he might have dug himself a bigger hole with the boys by accident. He and Dottie had agreed that it would be easier to have a second wedding and keep the first wedding a secret, but he hadn't factored in the baby at all. He closed his eyes and tried to get some sleep. He would need to have a serious talk with Amanda and try to get things straightened out, before he made things any worse than they already were.


	12. Chapter 12

_Sunday, August 23, 1987, 8:30 AM_

Lee awoke the next morning with a start, amazed at the realism of the nightmare he had just had. Amanda had gotten herself stuck in the Q Bureau Vault and hurt herself, and was pregnant, and so news of their secret marriage was starting to come out. Handling all of this pretty much on his own had left him so overwhelmed. He rolled over, and saw the folded piece of yellow notepad paper sitting on the end table and realized - it wasn't a dream, it was real. He sat up, rubbing at his eyes, as the events of the previous day rolled over him. He was mentally exhausted just as much as he had on any previous case, probably. He swung his legs over the side of the bed, he wanted to take a quick shower and get a cup of coffee in him before heading to the Agency infirmary and checking on Amanda. No one called during the night, so no news must be good news. First thing, he put Amanda's note in the dresser, and pulled out her engagement ring. He looked at it for a long moment before smiling, and setting it on top of the dresser. After his shower, he started the coffee brewing, and found a plate where he could safely burn the other three of Amanda's notes. Before he left, he tucked the engagement ring into his pants pocket.

Amanda had slept fairly peacefully during the night, once she was able to fall asleep. Her fear of falling asleep in the vault was lingering in the shadows of her consciousness, and she found herself jerking awake a couple of times and reminding herself that she wasn't in the vault, and that Lee had rescued her, just as she knew he would. He always did. The nurse came in with her breakfast tray, and told her the doctor would be making the arrangements to transfer her to a hospital that day if possible, and would come talk to her later. Amanda slowly ate her breakfast, *Amazing how they managed to duplicate the hospital food here too*, waiting for her husband to come back.

_Sunday, August 23, 1987, 9:30 AM_

Lee walked down the corridor into the infirmary, waving at the nurse in the lobby. He ran into Amanda's doctor in the hallway as he was leaving Amanda's room. "Doctor Jones, how is she doing today?" The doctor turned and smiled towards Lee, "Our patient is doing very well, much more alert and awake today and suffering only a mild headache. I was just telling her that we've arranged for her to be transported over to a hospital later today. She'll be sedated for transport, and I've contacted her regular OBY/GYN to meet her there later today to check on the baby." Lee nodded, "Is she up for visitors?" The doctor nodded and waved towards the door. Lee opened it a crack and peeped in, watching Amanda laying back in her bed, her hands fidgeting in her lap. *Staying Still is so not-Amanda, I hope she's not forced to stay in bed too long* He walked in, "Good morning, Mrs. Stetson!" Amanda's smile shone across the room towards him and she reached for him, "Lee!" He stepped forward and they embraced, and he gave her a gentle kiss before pulling the stool over to sit down on. "How are you feeling, Amanda?" She shrugged her shoulder, "I"m a little sore and tired, and my head hurts, but other than that, I feel fine. The doctor is getting me moved to a regular hospital so Mother and the boys can come visit, and he's arranged for Dr. Reynolds to come check on me and the baby later today." Lee nodded, feeling no need to tell her he had already talked to the doctor, so grateful he could listen to Amanda's voice. He rubbed her hand, "Well, you missed a lot yesterday while you were sleeping, let me fill you in."

He gave her the brief version of his talks with Billy and Dottie and the boys. Amanda's eyes widened, "Mother is taking this so well, I guess it's because she's getting exactly what she's been wanting for so long!" He nodded, "My only concern is the baby, Dottie's suggestion that we have another wedding, a public one, was such a good one I ran with it with the boys, and I totally forgot we have another on the way." He laid his hand on Amanda's abdomen, "The boys are smart, they'll figure out this baby was conceived before what they believe is our 'wedding date'. I'd tell them the truth, but I've just lied to them once, to admit to another lie I don't think would be a good idea at all." Lee's face looked so sad, Amanda reached down and patted his hand where it rested on her stomach. "Well, I think we should get engaged as soon as possible, so we can plan on getting married when I get out of the hospital." Lee smiled, and reached into his pocket, pulling out her engagement ring. "I sort of hoped you'd say that, so I brought you this." Amanda grinned and held out her hand and he slipped the ring on her finger. It felt so right to both of them for her to be able to wear her ring out in the open, instead of on a chain around her neck. Amanda asked him about his week away, and he told her it was a security detail, very easy and he wasn't in any danger at all. "Who would have thought I was safer out in the field than you were in the Q Bureau!" Amanda smiled, and Lee and Amanda just talked for awhile until the nurse came in, "Time to give you your sedative for the trip, Mrs. Stetson." Amanda nodded, and the nurse injected something into her IV line. Lee sat with her until she drifted asleep, telling her, "I'll be there at the hospital when you wake up, my love." He gave her another kiss, and once she was completely asleep, went over to the phone to call her mother and give up an update. "Hopefully after they transfer her and she has the meeting with Dr. Reynolds, she'll be able to have visitors later today and you can bring the boys."

The nurse and a couple of orderlies began to prepare to move Amanda into an ambulance. Lee watched as they wheeled her down the corridor towards the elevators and made his way to the parking garage. He wanted to get some flowers to put in her room so she'd see them first thing when she arrived at the hospital. He jumped into his car and tried to find a florist open that early on a Sunday morning. Fortunately he had a lot of experience with florists from his bachelor days and he was able to find one and get a dozen long stemmed red roses for Amanda. As the clerk was wrapping them up, he remembered how he used to hate the smell of roses before Amanda helped him to deal with Dorothy's death - just one of the many gifts she had brought into his life. He headed for the hospital, reminding himself that they would have registered her under Amanda King and not Amanda Stetson. Getting her room number from information, he headed upstairs with his present.

He found Doctor Jones standing outside of Amanda's room talking to another doctor, an older woman. He waited patiently off to the side until Doctor Jones noticed him, and waved him over. "Lee, this is Amanda's doctor, Doctor Reynolds." He reached out and shook her hand, "I've brought her up to speed on Amanda's injury and treatment up to this point. She's already ordered some tests to check on the condition of the baby. Our infirmary is ready to handle a lot of things, but pregnancies isn't really one of them." Doctor Reynolds inserted, "Well, we've got everything we need here to we'll double check that everything is all right and provide Amanda all the support she needs. It sounds like she was a very lucky woman." Lee and Doctor Jones both nodded and Lee said, "Is she awake yet?" Doctor Jones shook his head, "Not yet, but you can go ahead and go sit with her if you'd like." Lee nodded and went into Amanda's room, leaving the two doctors speaking behind him.

He put the flowers in some water and pulled the chair over to sit and hold her hand. After awhile, the stress of the past 24 hours began to catch up with him, and he laid his head down on the bed next to their clasped hands and he let himself drift off to sleep.

_Sunday, August 23, 1987, 11:30 AM_

Lee woke to a hand running through his hair. He lifted his head, not exactly sure where he was, then realized he was looking up at a smiling Amanda sitting up in her bed. "Good morning, Sleeping Beauty," she grinned at him, and he gave her a boyish grin back. "I guess I was more worn out than I thought. How long have you been awake?" She shrugged, "Not long, just long enough to realize you were here, and that felt really good. Did you tell Mother where I am?" He nodded, "I told her what hospital you were moving to, and that as soon as the doctor's finished their tests and you were ready for visitors, I'd give her a call to bring the boys." Just then, the door opened, and a very serious looking Doctor Reynolds entered the room. Amanda and Lee both looked back at her, and neither liked what they saw. Lee stood up, keeping a tight hold on Amanda's hand. "Doctor Reynolds?"

The woman paused just inside the doorway before moving to the other side of the bed and taking Amanda's hand, "Amanda, I've finished running my tests, and I'm so sorry." Amanda's eyes began to water, and Lee looked back and forth whispering, "Did she lose the baby?" Doctor Reynolds shook her head no, "No, she didn't lose the baby, there probably wasn't a baby for her to lose." Lee and Amanda looked at each other in confusion before turning back to Doctor Reynolds, Lee asking, "What do you mean, there wasn't a baby?" Doctor Reynolds said, "Doctor Jones had ordered a basic blood work up when Amanda was brought in, that includes an hCG level. Amanda's were elevated, which indicates a pregnancy, but because his main concern was the head injury, he didn't do more extensive testing to verify the pregnancy. I've completed that, and while her hCG levels are elevated, according to the more sophisticated testing, there isn't a baby. It's probably a situation that is known as a chemical pregnancy, meaning you began a pregnancy but it ended on its own. It might have happened even before the fall, but your hCG levels just haven't dropped yet. You hadn't missed a cycle yet, had you?" Amanda shook her head slowly. "You probably will have a normal cycle when it's time. If it wasn't for your fall, you probably wouldn't have even known anything had happened. I'm so sorry, Amanda, I know this is probably hard for you, on top of everything else. I'll let you rest now, and we'll have you come in to my office for a check in about a month, just to double check those horomone levels again." Doctor Reynolds left with a feeling very similar to what she normally felt after having to tell a patient that she had had a miscarriage. Knowing Amanda's heart, she was sure she was in love with that baby, even though it never really existed, but because she believed it did exist.

Lee sat back down, not sure what to say. *In a way, this is a great thing, we won't have to explain anything to the boys, and Billy and Dottie are the only two people who knew about the baby. But..... it hurts that there isn't a baby because I really wanted it.* He looked back up to Amanda and their eyes met, tears were running down her face, "Oh Amanda, I'm so sorry about this, you really wanted there to be a baby, didn't you?" She nodded and he stood up and put his arms around her, holding her while she cried, careful to keep her head from moving around too much. As she got herself back under control, Lee moved back and she looked at him. "You found my notes, didn't you?" He nodded slowly, and her lower lip quivered again before she whispered, "Did you read yours yet?" He nodded again and a ghost of a smile came to her face, "Knew you would." He sat back down, "To answer your question, yes, I want to have a baby with you, I never realized it, never really thought about it until yesterday, but the idea of making a baby with you was just incredible." Lee felt himself tearing up, and looked away, trying to gain control of his emotions. Amanda's hand reached up and brought his head back around, "Lee, please don't hide your feelings for me. It's OK to cry when you're sad, especially in front of me." Lee felt the tears start to roll down his cheek, and laid his head down on the bed, letting Amanda stroke his hair while he cried for almost losing his wife - again - and the loss of a baby that only existed in their minds. He didn't cry for long, but he did feel better once he had let some of the stress out of his system. When he sat up, Amanda was waiting with a tissue and a smile. "You know, once I'm all better, we can try to have a baby, now that our marriage won't be a secret." Lee smiled back at her and nodded. Just then a nurse brought in Amanda's lunch. Lee dried his eyes, and then stood up, "I'll let you eat while I call Billy and Dottie with updates, OK darling?" Amanda nodded and he leaned down to kiss her before leaving the room. He headed out of the hospital to his car, wanting the somewhat more private setting of his car to make these two calls.

Billy expressed his regret, but was glad to hear Amanda was recovering. He told Lee to go ahead and take the rest of the week off as they talked about, and be with his family. The Agency can do without him for that long, and they'd work everything out when Amanda was back on her feet. Dottie was very upset, she too had been excited about the thought of a third grandchild, but felt assured when he told her that he and Amanda had talked about trying once she was back on her feet. "Oh, and you can tell the boys that I proposed to her first thing this morning, and she said yes. So we can plan on having the wedding as soon as we can arrange things after she's out of the hospital." Dottie was in her element, figuring out which relatives to invite, what decorations needed to be purchased, and she started making a list, after promising to bring the boys by later that afternoon, and noting Amanda's room number. After finishing the calls, he sat in his car for a few minutes, letting the events of the past two days sink in. It had been a roller coaster like no case he and Amanda had ever had to solve in the past. He was so grateful that Amanda had survived her night in the vault, and was looking forward to being a happily married man living with his family and not hiding it any more.

**_To be continued_**


	13. Epilogue

_Saturday, September 12, 1987, 2:30 PM_

Amanda sat in her room, looking at her reflection in the mirror and thought about what a whirlwind the last couple of weeks had been in her life. After accidentally getting trapped in a vault at work, she had a fairly serious head injury and had to spend some time in the hospital. Her secret marriage to Lee became known to Billy and her mother, and for 24 hours she thought she was pregnant! Sadly, further testing showed that she was not pregnant, but she and Lee decided to go ahead and make their relationship know by renewing their vows and having a second marriage for everyone. Only Billy and her mother would know they had actually gotten married back in February. Her first afternoon at the hospital, after Lee had brought her the engagement ring, her mother and the boys came to visit and they sat around talking about the wedding. Dottie and the boys took over all of the preparation and planning while Amanda recovered from her injury. Even after she was released from the hospital after four days, she was on medical leave indefinitely from the Agency.

Billy Melrose had gotten the ball rolling on two projects while Amanda was in the hospital. First, he arranged to have emergency alarms installed in all Agency vaults so something like this never happened again. Second, he pulled in a few favors to get a mandate for Scarecrow and Mrs. King to stay together as a team, even if they were now Scarecrow and Mrs. Stetson. It meant going over and around Dr. Smythe's head, but Billy didn't mind that a bit.

Amanda and her mother went shopping for a dress, which meant stopping at Lee's apartment to pick up the ivory suit she wore at her first wedding. Her mother arranged for flowers and a cake for a small reception to be held in the house, and the boys got streamers and decorations to put outside leading up to the gazebo. Lee had a member of his Family of contacts who actually was an ordained minister, and even though this wasn't a legal wedding, but a renewal of their vows, he wanted it to look exactly like a real wedding for those in attendance. Billy agreed to be his Best Man, and Dottie was Amanda's Matron of Honor. The boys would walk her down the aisle, with Leatherneck taking over photographer duties for Jamie during that time. Jamie spent all of the available time he had setting up shots, planning out where to place people and get the best pictures, embracing his job as Event Photographer.

Amanda had recovered from her injury quite well, and now sat in her wedding dress for a second time, preparing to walk down the stairs of her home and once again declare her love for Lee Stetson, this time in public and with their friends and family to witness it. Barney and the Colonel represented Lee's family, and they were going to take a three day trip to the Poconos for their "honeymoon". The first one hadn't gone very well with her being shot and all, so they were going to make up for it with a short trip, before returning to work.

The weather was perfect, and Amanda reflected on how much her life had changed since she and Lee ran into each other on that train station platform, and he had handed her that package. She wouldn't have traded all of their trials and tribulations for the world, because it brought them to this point - publically declaring their love for each other. There was a soft knock on the door and when she said, "Come in!", Phillip and Jamie both stuck their heads around the side of the door, "Ready, Mom?" She stood up, and picked up the bouquet of flowers, and followed the boys down the stairs. Phillip signaled someone who was running the tape player, and "The Wedding March" began and he and Jamie took their places on either side of their mother to walk her to the gazebo and Lee. Dottie and Billy stood there as well, waiting for them. The weather was perfect, and once the boys got her to stand next to Lee, Jamie took his camera back from Leatherneck and began snapping photographs as the ceremony began. Francine even dabbed at her eyes a time or two. They exchanged their rings, and repeated the same vows they had exchanged in private back in February. But it felt so much different to be saying them in front of their friends and family. The weight of their secret had been lifted. As they were introduced to the assembly as "Mr. and Mrs. Lee Stetson", both of them felt grateful for the gift that a Night in the Vault had given them.

They enjoyed a quiet honeymoon, and when they returned, went back into work. Dr. Smythe did try to raise a fuss, but Billy had called in enough markers to ensure that they could continue to work together as a team for as long as they chose to do so. Lee sublet his apartment and brought his personal possessions to Amanda's house, although they quickly decided that a larger home was needed. Within 6 months, a larger house with a guest cottage for Dottie was found and purchased, and the King/Stetson/West household moved into their new home. The boys each had their own room, and one bedroom was set aside in hopes of someday being used as a nursery. There were adjustments to be made, once when Amanda had the flu, Dottie stepped in as Lee's escort for one of the Embassy Balls! Life for the Stetsons was everything they could have dreamed of, except for one thing - Amanda's desire to have a baby.

_Two Years Later_

Lee and Amanda had continued their successful manning of the Q Bureau, solving multiple cases, and getting into the occassional scrape along the way. Amanda had been working hard on transcribing some tapes from a series of stakeouts one afternoon when she began to feel ill. She went home, and wasn't feeling much better the next day. She arranged to go in to her doctor, and came out of the doctor's office that afternoon with an amazing smile on her face. That night as she got ready for bed, she thought about how to tell her husband about the change about to come into their lives. As she left the bathroom, she found him sitting on their bed reading from a piece of yellow notebook paper. As she sat down, she could tell it had been folded and refolded many times. Leaning over, she recognized right away the note she had written the night she had spent in the vault. "You still have that, after all this time?" Lee nodded, folding it back up to put in the little box he kept it in. "I read it every time I need a reminder of how blessed my life is, and how close I came to losing you that day." She smiled, recognizing an opening, and rested a hand on his arm, "Do you remember the day you found me, how the doctors thought I was pregnant, how scary and yet exciting it was?" Lee nodded and turned to look at her quizzically. Amanda smiled, "Well, the tests aren't wrong this time." It took a moment for her words to sink in before a great big grin showed on Lee's face, and he reached for his beloved wife for a big hug. He rested a hand on her stomach and whispered, "Are you sure? No false positives this time?" She shook her head, "Nope, Doctor Reynolds is quite sure." Lee and Amanda celebrated their good news, but decided not to tell the family until she got through the first trimester.

The next day at work, Lee and Amanda told their supervisor, Billy Melrose, so he could take Amanda off of the Field Duty roster. They also talked to him about a desire to come out of the field, and find other ways to serve in the Agency. Billy asked them to give him a couple of weeks to see what he could line up.

Two weeks later, Billy called a special staff meeting. "People, we've got some major changes coming and I want to give you a head's up. These are all effective the first of the month. Dr. Smythe is retiring, and I've been asked to replace him. I've accepted on the condition that I can name my replacement." Francine's smile began to grow, she knew she had been groomed to take his place for years. "I'm going to ask Scarecrow and his wife to become joint heads of the department." Francine's smile crumbled. "They've accepted on the condition that they can return to field on an as needed basis, and I've agreed. To replace them at the Q Bureau, I'm promoting Francine to Q Bureau Station Chief, where she will man her own department of agents to keep up the excellent work Lee and Amanda have done there the past few years." Amanda's organizational skills will serve Lee just as Francine has served me during my time as head of this department. We will have some adjusting to do, but I know everyone will do their best. Congratulations, and thank you for your service to me these past years." There was a round of applause, hugs, and pats on the back all around. Francine was disappointment not to have Billy's job, but a new Station Chief position just for her was great,and she would be able to run things her way, it was an exciting chance for her.

Lee and Amanda looked at each other from where they say at the conference room table, both remembering another meeting a couple of years earlier, where a simple filing assignment ended up changing their lives forever. They smiled, and held hands under the table, knowing that coming out of the field was best for both of them, especially as in 7 more months, they'd have a little boy or girl on their hands.

The next week, when Lee and Amanda went in for her ultrasound, they were as surprised as Doctor Reynolds to find that Amanda was carrying twins! At her age, a multiple pregnancy was considered high-risk and she was monitored very closely.

6 months later, Amanda went into the hospital and delivered a baby boy and a baby girl via Caesarian section. The boy was named Matthew William Stetson and the girl was named Jennifer Dorothy Stetson. That night, Lee sat in their bedroom, and pulled out the faded pieces of yellow notepad paper. Their family was now complete with the addition of Matt and Jenny, and their lives had come full circle. Lee found he was a good administrator, as long as he didn't have to do the paperwork, and he and Amanda both enjoyed helping with new Agent Training programs in addition to their regular duties. He felt so blessed to be a father of two children of his own, in addition to the King boys. With Dottie's help to raise the kids, and their older brothers pitching in, another set of adjustments would be made for the babies. But he knew they'd make it work, and they lived happily ever after.

**_Fin_**

_Author's Note: Thank you to all of my readers and reviewers for encouraging me along the journey of my story, I hope you enjoyed it, and I look forward to writing another SMK story when the inspiration hits me._


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